Recently, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) officially issued an interim resolution (PID) on the re-evaluation of diuron, which marked the completion of the 15-year re-evaluation of diuron.
However, in this resolution, US EPA has basically determined that it will further limit the use of diuron based on the existing evaluation data, especially the use of this popular herbicide in food and feed crops will be banned. .
Diuron has a wide range of uses as an efficient and broad-spectrum urea herbicide, mainly used to control annual and perennial weeds in fields and non-arable land, and can also be used as a defoliant for cotton planting and fishery production. Algaecide.
In addition, diuron can also be used as a substitute for DDT and tributyltin in marine antifouling coatings.
According to US EPA statistics from 2015 to 2019, an average of about 2.3 million pounds (about 1,043 tons) of diuron was applied to 4.4 million acres (about 1.78 million hectares) of farmland each year in the United States. Among them, about 65% of diuron was used to control weeds in cotton fields, and the next highest use of diuron in crops or scenarios also included citrus, alfalfa and fallow field weeding.
Diuron's Restricted Use Scenarios
Since the carcinogenic risk of diuron and its impact on wildlife cannot be ruled out, the US EPA has finally decided to further limit the use of diuron. The biggest impact is to ban the use of diuron in food and feed crops. Not only includes nearly 40 kinds of alfalfa, grapes, corn, etc., but also for cotton, which is the most used.
Affected by this resolution, the use of diuron in cotton will be limited to defoliation at the harvest stage of cotton due to concerns that the active substance will remain in cottonseed as feed.
At the same time, in order to avoid the carcinogenic risk of diuron through occupational exposure, US EPA also proposes to add more risk reduction measures, especially for its antifouling coating application. The labeling of protective equipment (PPE) states and guides users in the correct application of PPE.
multi-party disputes
There is no doubt that the interim resolution of the re-evaluation of diuron can indeed reduce the use of this potentially dangerous herbicide and effectively protect human health and the ecological environment, but its use has also caused dissatisfaction among the majority of American growers. The main reason is that although there are many alternatives for the control of cotton, citrus and other crop weeds on the market, compared with Diuron, it not only has excellent control effect and significant price advantage, but also is one of the resistance management methods. Effective rotation of drug varieties.
At present, the interim resolution on the re-evaluation of diuron released by the US EPA is in the public comment stage, and the deadline is June 27.
Introduction to Pesticide Re-evaluation in the United States
Under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), registered pesticide products are re-evaluated by the US EPA for active substances every 15 years.
During the re-evaluation process, for a specific active substance, US EPA will require relevant companies to provide further data based on the existing evaluation situation to complete a new round of risk assessment. This process is called Data call-in (DCI). As long as the enterprise actively responds to the re-evaluated DCI and completes the regular obligations such as annual report submission, the registration certificate will remain valid.
Source: AgroPages
