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:
- Multiorganizational projects may not be able to be completed within
the schedule because of extra delays resulting from the required coordination.
- UPAC project recommendations should not need approval from other
organizations; rather, IUPAC recommendations should be recognized
as scientifically independent.
- IUPAC may seek funding from outside agencies for a project.
- Results of our work are not very visible because of the poor availability
of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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?
- Bioavailability of agrochemicals in the soil environment
- Pesticide residues in food-acute dietary exposure
- Harmonized practical approach for the validation of multiresidue
methods for pesticide residue analysis
- Impact of large-scale breeding of transgenic crops on the use of
agrochemicals and the environment
- 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:
- Role or mission of the Commission
- List of members
- Current projects with progress reports
- Abstracts and recommendations of completed projects
- List of published papers
- Meeting reports
- Future activities, e.g., planned workshops
Denis
Hamilton
Secretary of Commission VI.4