^®: CRE Regulatory Action of the Week

EPA to Hold 4-day SAP on Nanosilver and other Nanometal Pesticides
On September 16, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that there will be a 4-day consultation meeting of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory Panel to consider and review a set of scientific issues related to the assessment of hazard and exposure associated with nanosilver and other nanometal pesticide products.

This FIFRA SAP meeting will occur from November 3-6, 2009, at EPA's Arlington, Virginia offices.

The FIFRA SAP serves as the primary scientific peer review mechanism of EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances and is structured to provide scientific advice, information and recommendations to the EPA Administrator on pesticides and pesticide-related issues as to the impact of regulatory actions on health and the environment.

At this meeting, the SAP will address the following issues:

"1. Scientific evidence that nanosilver and other nanometals/ nanometal oxides with dimensions in the range of 1 - ~100 nm have unique behavior under conditions relevant to human and environmental influence this behavior.

2. Recommendations regarding the types of data that OPP should require to evaluate the risks to humans and the environment for products containing free nanosilver and/or nanometals or nanometal oxides and products with incorporated nanosilver and/or nanometals or nanometal oxides with variable potential to leach and the relative priorities for obtaining recommended types of data.

3. Recommendations regarding how OPP should conduct risk assessments of pesticide products containing nanosilver and/or nanometals or nanometal oxides."