APVMA modifies insecticide linked to brain damage

The broad based insecticide has been under a cloud of uncertainty since it was banned in household and domestic settings and in the EU and Canada.

The use of a controversial insecticide commonly used by Australian farmers that has been linked to brain damage in children is being curtailed by regulators in Australia.

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority has cancelled products containing the chemical chlorpyrifos for most agricultural uses “due primarily to worker health and safety and environmental risk that the APVMA does not believe can be mitigated”, the agricultural and veterinary chemical regulator said.

APVMA chief executive Scott Hansen said the regulator’s decision to ban most agricultural uses was based on a rigorous, evidence-based scientific review that received 14 submissions.

A 12-month phase out period has begun for product already in the supply chain or on-farm, but it can no longer be manufactured or imported.

The chemical is used as a broad based insecticide on fruits and vegetables, oilseeds, cotton, cereals, pasture and turf.

The ban on chlorpyrifos comes five years after it was pulled off the shelves for domestic and home garden uses and two years after it was withdrawn for agricultural use in Canada and the European Union, and ends years of uncertainty over its use on-farm in Australia.

In its final technical review, released on Thursday, the APVMA said: “Several epidemiological studies and reviews from regulatory authorities have associated pre- and post-natal exposure to chlorpyrifos with changes in brain morphology, delays in cognitive and motor functions, problems with attention and tremors.

“This, in addition to high toxicity to mammals, indicates a potential for damage to human health,” the APVMA said.

Professor James Hunt, an agronomist and crop physiologist at the University of Melbourne, said he wasn’t surprised by the ban, “it’s useful but extremely toxic”.

He said farmers would have to find more expensive, less broad spectrum products as an alternative.

A limited number of chlorpyrifos uses will be allowed.

The APVMA’s ruling on chlorpyrifos comes less than a month after it banned the use of diazinon, commonly used by sheep producers to control flystrike and lice.