Chemistry International
Vol. 21, No.3, May 1999

1999, Vol. 21
No. 3 (May)
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.. Other Societies
.. Reports from Symposia
.. 1997 Accounts
.. New Books and Publications
.. Provisional Recommendations
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Chemistry International
Vol. 21, No. 3
May 1999

Reports from Commissions

Commission of Agrochemicals and the Environment - VI.4

8 - 10 August 1998,
Cambridge, England

Summary of Minutes of Commission Meeting
Twenty-three members of the Commission on Agrochemicals and the Environment (VI.4), including national representatives and observers, met for three days of productive work in Cambridge immediately following the 9th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry in London. Members were welcomed to historic Cambridge and were most grateful to the UK members of the Commission who had made arrangements for the meeting. Chairman and secretary of the Commission are Dr. Kenneth Racke and Mr. Denis Hamilton, respectively.

In the discussion on membership, it was noted that the two observers (Dr. Katayama and Dr. Bellin) invited to the 1998 meeting had participated actively and usefully in the project work and should be invited to participate further by attending the Berlin meeting in 1999. Possible additional participants could attend from Egypt, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Germany, and Switzerland. It was suggested that National Adhering Organizations should consider funding of their national representatives to encourage more active involvement. Some national representatives are already very active in the Commission, but they do this with little assistance, contributing their own time and resources.

Attending the 9th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry in London in August 1998 were 1700 registrants and 124 accompanying persons representing 58 countries. Affiliation of delegates was roughly 3:1 industry:public sector. The bulk of presentations were in poster format, with over 1100 displayed, and were of a high standard. A copy of the IUPAC Pesticide Glossary, including a brief summary of the Commission's role and listing of recent publications, was put into each delegate's satchel. There were good media relations established before and during the Congress by the organizers and, in addition to active coverage of the Congress in the popular press, pre-meeting articles also appeared in Pesticide Outlook and Chemistry in Britain.

The 10th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry will take place in Basel from 4-9 August 2002, with the theme "Innovative solutions for healthy crops". The Commission was informed that the word "pesticide" in the Congress title was causing commercial difficulty for the organizers and carried the connotation of "pestilence" in some European languages. Commission members were generally disappointed that the word "pesticide," which has a clear meaning, was to be dropped but, of the suggested options, members favored 10th IUPAC International Congress on the Chemistry of Crop Protection.

The Commission maintains a strong desire to continue its series of regional pesticide workshops and is planning a workshop (leader, Sue-Sun Wong) in Taiwan for 4-7 October 2000, with the theme "Harmonization of pesticide management-regulation, monitoring, and evaluation".

Dr. Miyamoto (Chairman of the Division of Chemistry and the Environment, VI) explained the Strategy Development and Implementation Committee (SDIC) report and changes in the structure of IUPAC. He stressed the importance of the visibility of IUPAC and its ability to influence future directions. During discussion, members raised a number of points:

  1. Multiorganizational projects may not be able to be completed within the schedule because of extra delays resulting from the required coordination.
  2. UPAC project recommendations should not need approval from other organizations; rather, IUPAC recommendations should be recognized as scientifically independent.
  3. IUPAC may seek funding from outside agencies for a project.
  4. Results of our work are not very visible because of the poor availability of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
  5. International character and geographical spread of the Commission will diminish if we pursue the proposed task force approach. The pressure will be to choose a small group of experts from a limited geographic area and preferably with good English writing skills.
  6. The Commission should obtain information on the effects or impacts of its workshops held in developing countries.

Most of the Commission meeting time was occupied with developing its projects, the heart of the Commission's work.

A near-final report of Project 20/87, "Relevance of impurities in technical grade pesticides" (leader, Arpad Ambrus), has been circulated to members and is essentially ready for publication.

Project 29/91, "Significance of long-range transport of pesticides in air" (leader, John Unsworth), is final and ready for publication.

An advanced draft report of Project 31/91, "Disposal and degradation of pesticide waste" (leader, Allan Felsot), was available; team members will check national systems for classification of wastes for inclusion in the next draft.

The final report of Project 36/93, "Bound xenobiotic residues in food commodities of plant and animal origin" (leader, Mike Skidmore), has been submitted for publication.

An advanced outline of Project 40/97, "Mass spectrometric techniques for multiresidue monitoring of pesticides in food and animal feedstuffs" (leader, Stewart Reynolds), was available for discussion in Cambridge.

Little progress had been made with Project 41/97, "Regulatory limits for pesticide residues in water" (leader, Denis Hamilton). The project will examine the reasons and the basis for setting standards for residues in waters.

An outline of Project 42/97, "Interception and retention factors for pesticides applied to plant foliage" (leader, Jan Linders), was available for discussion in Cambridge. The objective is to develop new estimation rules for an environmental exposure analysis where information on fraction of spray contacting the foliage and fraction of spray retained by the foliage are needed.

A detailed workplan for Project 43/97, "Pesticide soil sorption parameters Kd and Koc; theory, measurement, uses, limitations, and reliability" (leader, Don Wauchope), was decided in Cambridge. The objective is to analyze the variability of Kd and KOC and to recommend rules for estimating the probable errors and limitations of these parameters when used to predict pesticide mobility.

The following proposals for projects were raised for the first time at the Cambridge meeting:

  1. Trends in research in agrochemicals: Do we have the critical mass of open science (publication) needed both to advance the open science of crop protection and to protect the public's interest?
  2. Bioavailability of agrochemicals in the soil environment
  3. Pesticide residues in food-acute dietary exposure
  4. Harmonized practical approach for the validation of multiresidue methods for pesticide residue analysis
  5. Impact of large-scale breeding of transgenic crops on the use of agrochemicals and the environment
  6. Chemicals in integrated pest management.

Project reports are currently published in Pure and Applied Chemistry, but the journal has poor visibility for pesticide chemistry. In the future, project summaries and recommendations will appear in Pesticide Science to improve their visibility. The Commission considered the possibility of publishing its reports in journals other than Pure and Applied Chemistry, but was not clear on IUPAC publishing policy.

The Commission decided on the contents of a web site, to be planned by Jan Linders:

  1. Role or mission of the Commission
  2. List of members
  3. Current projects with progress reports
  4. Abstracts and recommendations of completed projects
  5. List of published papers
  6. Meeting reports
  7. Future activities, e.g., planned workshops

Denis Hamilton
Secretary of Commission VI.4

 


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