§ Mr. TylerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the implications which the revocation of approval of Diazinon and other organophosphate substances by the Pesticides Safety Directorate, on the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides, has for the continued use of(a) all OP sheepdips and (b) other OP products. [82778]
§ Mr. RookerThe Government are reviewing all approvals of organophosphate and carbamate compounds used in pesticides approved by the Pesticides Safety Directorate and the Health and Safety Executive under the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985. The company concerned has chosen not to provide the data necessary to support two products containing diazinon.
310WApprovals for these products have therefore been withdrawn. Companies that have indicated that they will support other organophosphate pesticides now have five months to submit complete data packages for the review.
A similar review of veterinary medicines, including those with an organophosphorus compound as an active ingredient was conducted in the early 1990s and companies produced full data packages for sheep dips and other veterinary medicines, the active ingredient of which is diazinon. In cases where the data packages satisfied the statutory requirements, products continued to be authorised. In addition, the Veterinary Products Committee (VPC) conducted reviews of the safety of OP sheep dips in 1993 and 1997.
The VPC is currently reviewing OP-based veterinary medicines other than sheep dips and the withdrawal of the two diazinon pesticides will be drawn to the Committee's attention.