|  International regulatory information
Summary information
on the regulatory status of pesticides can be found on the Chemical
Detail page, accessible through the PAN Pesticide Database Chemical
Search. Visit
the site. It is also possible to search for pesticides registered,
banned and restricted for a number of countries through the PAN
Pesticide Database International Registration search. Visit
the site.
This page describes
the documentation available for this data set.
 Registered
Pesticides
UNEP
Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Pesticides
Introduction
and Overview
Definition
of Consent to Import
UN-FAO
Definitions of Banned and Severely Restricted
The Process for Adding New Chemicals to the PIC List
UNEP
Persistent Organic Pollutant (POPs) Pesticides
World
Health Organization (WHO) Obsolete Pesticides
Registered
Pesticides If
a pesticide is registered for use in a country, it is legally allowed
to be used in that country. The registration status of pesticides
in a number of different countries has been collected by the Pesticide
Action Network. See the International
Registration page for a list of the countries for which we have
obtained registration data.
About the Data: Accuracy,
currency, comprehensiveness and source
The currency
of each country's registration data set is given on the International
Registration page for the particular country.
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UNEP
Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Pesticides
Introduction
and Overview
The Rotterdam Convention laid out a process for countries to obtain information about the toxicity of chemicals imported into their countries. The original concern was the importation of highly toxic chemicals into developing countries that have little infrastructure and/or chemical expertise for handling these substances. The PIC process is implemented jointly
by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) through the FAO/UNEP Joint Programme
for the Operation of PIC.
The goals of the PIC procedure are to
help participating countries learn more about the characteristics
of potentially hazardous chemicals that may be shipped to them,
to initiate a decision-making process on the future import of these
chemicals by the countries themselves, and to facilitate the dissemination
of this decision to other countries. The aim is to promote a shared
responsibility between exporting and importing countries in protecting
human health and the environment from the harmful effects of certain
hazardous chemicals being traded internationally (1). The Plant
Production and Protection Division of FAO is the lead agency for
pesticides and UNEP Chemicals (IRPTC), is the lead agency for other
chemicals.
The growth
in world trade in chemicals during the 1960's and 1970's led to
increasing concerns about the risks of using hazardous chemicals.
These concerns led, among others, to the development of the International
Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides in 1985
by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
FAO, and the London Guidelines for the Exchange of Information on
Chemicals in International Trade in 1987 by the United Nations Environment
Programme, UNEP. The procedure known as Prior Informed Consent (PIC)
was added in 1989 to help control imports of unwanted chemicals
that have been banned or severely restricted (1).
The Rotterdam
Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain
Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade was adopted
at a Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Rotterdam on 10 September
1998. The Convention entered into force on February 24, 2004. (1).
Definition
of Consent to Import
If a country
has given consent to import a chemical, the chemical can legally
be imported into the country. Often there are further restrictions
on the chemical if it is imported (see below). In many cases, we
observed that countries do not give consent to import a particular
chemical, but also do not explicitly ban or restrict the chemical.
In most of these cases, the chemical is probably not registered
for use, but since the documentation does not definitively state
this, we are not able to provide the registration status of the
chemical.
UN
FAO Definitions of Banned, Severely Restricted, and Restricted
The Rotterdam
Convention has defined "banned" and "severely restricted"
chemicals according to some very specific parameters. These definitions,
quoted from the text of Article 2 of the PIC treaty (3), are shown
below.
(b) "Banned
chemical" means a chemical all uses of which within one or
more categories have been prohibited by final regulatory action,
in order to protect human health or the environment. It includes
a chemical that has been refused approval for first-time use or
has been withdrawn by industry either from the domestic market
or from further consideration in the domestic approval process
and where there is clear evidence that such action has been taken
in order to protect human health or the environment;
(c) "Severely
restricted chemical" means a chemical virtually all use of
which within one or more categories has been prohibited by final
regulatory action in order to protect human health or the environment,
but for which certain specific uses remain allowed. It includes
a chemical that has, for virtually all use, been refused for approval
or been withdrawn by industry either from the domestic market
or from further consideration in the domestic approval process,
and where there is clear evidence that such action has been taken
in order to protect human health or the environment;
The definition
of "category" is also important to fully understand the
process. The two categories of chemicals are: (a) pesticides, and
(b) industrial chemicals.
The Process for Adding New Chemicals to the PIC List
The Rotterdam Convention also provided a process for listing new chemicals on the PIC list. In brief, if a chemical has been banned or severely restricted (see definitions above) in more than two regions of the world, it may be added to the PIC list after the countries (Parties to the Convention) submit a "Notification of Final Regulatory Action". Specifically (4):
"Article 5 of the Convention sets out the obligations of Parties with respect to notifying the Secretariat of their final regulatory actions to ban or severely restrict a chemical for health or environmental reasons. If a Party takes a final regulatory action to ban or severely restrict a chemical for health or environment reasons, it shares the information with all Parties by notifying the action to the Secretariat. Upon receipt of a notification of final regulatory action the Secretariat must verify whether it meets the information requirements of Annex I of the Convention. If the notification is found to be complete a summary is prepared and published in the PIC Circular. The summary briefly describes the scope of the action and the reasons, including information on hazards and risks of the chemical to human health or environment and the expected effect of the regulatory action.
Summaries of the all complete notifications submitted to the Secretariat after September 1998 may be found in the Rotterdam Convention database searching either by chemical name or by country."
The Secretariat maintains an on-line database of final regulatory actions searchable by country or by chemical (5).
About the Data: Accuracy,
currency, comprehensiveness and source
The official PIC list can be
found in Annex III of the Rotterdam Convention (Reference 2). Some listings encompass
more than one chemical, such as "Mercury compounds, including
inorganic mercury compounds, alkyl mercury compounds and alkyloxyalkyl
and aryl mercury compounds" or "Dinoseb and dinoseb salts."
These data were current in the PAN database as
of August 1, 2009.
References:
- Rotterdam
Convention, Prior Informed Consent, Joint
FAO/UN Secretariat. Viewed on August 1, 2009.
- Annex III, List of PIC Chemicals, United
Nations Environment Programme. Viewed on August 1, 2009.
- Text of PIC Treaty, United
Nations Environment Programme. Viewed on August 1, 2009.
- Notifications of Final Regulatory Actions, United Nations Environment Programme, Viewed on August 1, 2009.
- Appendix V and RC Database, United Nations Environment Programme, Viewed on August 1, 2009.
UNEP
Persistent Organic Pollutant (POPs) Pesticides Persistent
Organic Pollutants (POPs) chemicals are
toxic compounds that persist in the environment for many years. Pesticides that are on the POPs list are flagged with a "Yes" (or "Yesx", if the chemical is part of a group that was listed). Pesticides under review by the POPs Review Committee are listed as either "Under Review", if the review is in progress, or "Reviewed", if the review is complete, but no decision has been made. All other chemicals are "Not Listed."
The United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) identified twelve POPs to be the
initial chemicals targeted for global elimination under an international
treaty signed in May 2001 (1, 2). Nine of these chemicals are organochlorine
pesticides (aldrin, endrin, dieldrin, DDT, chlordane, heptachlor,
hexachlorobenzene, toxaphene and mirex). The industrial chemicals
dioxin, furans and PCBs are also on the list. The treaty entered into force on May 17, 2004 and has provisions
to add additional chemicals which meet the agreed-upon criteria
for persistence in the environment, bioaccumulation, and transportability.
Chemicals under review in mid-2009 for inclusion on the POPs list include several brominated flame retardants; perfluorinated compounds used as non-stick lubricants or stain repellents; chlorinated alkanes used in paints, adhesives, sealants, etc.; and the pesticides chlordecone, lindane, endosulfan, alpha- and beta-BHC, and pentachlorobenzene.
About the Data: Accuracy,
currency, comprehensiveness and source.
The official
POPs list is current as of August 1, 2009. The review process for additional chemicals is ongoing and the list could change as frequently as twice per year; more commonly, changes take several years to occur.
References:
- Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic
Pollutants, United
Nations Environment Programme. Viewed on August 1, 2009
.
- International
POPs Elimination Network
Web site. Viewed on August 1, 2009.
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World
Health Organization (WHO) Obsolete Pesticides
Certain chemicals are designated
by the World Health Organization (WHO) as believed obsolete or discontinued for use as pesticides.
WHO states, "It is difficult, in some cases, to be sure whether
or not all commercial activity in a substance has ceased; some of
these materials are known to be still in use for non-agricultural
purposes." In fact, some WHO "obsolete" pesticides
are contained in pesticide products that are currently registered
for legal use in the U.S. by the U.S. EPA.
About the Data: Accuracy,
currency, comprehensiveness and source
The current list contains 286 pesticides.
This list has not been updated since 2005. These data were current as
of August 1, 2009.
Reference:
The
WHO Recommended Classification of Pesticides by Hazard and Guidelines
to Classification 2004, with corrections from 2005, World
Health Organization, 2005. Viewed on August 1, 2009.
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Last
updated
August 2, 2009
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