b'KEEP THE BALL ROLLINGA BAN ON THE USE OF CIPC FOR POTATO GROWERS IN THE EU HAS THE POTATO INDUSTRY ON BOTH SIDES OF THE POND CONCERNED.BY MELANIE EPPW hen chlorpropham (CIPC) cameacceptable daily intake (ADI) by 180surprise. In 2018, everyone still believed up for review in early 2018,per cent, and exposure to residues of itswe had a chance to get renewal for CIPC, European potato growers wer- metabolite 3CA had exceeded ADI by 195Cattoor adds. Later that year, it became ent overly concerned about losing theper cent. In an acute assessment, chlor- clear that this was utopia, given the very sprout inhibitor. Later that year, though,propham exceeded acute reference doseadverse ADI and ARfD numbers.it became clear non-renewal was a very(ARfD) by 797 per cent, 3CA exceededAs a result, renewal wasnt granted, real possibility.ARfD by 2360 per cent.and European Member States were The European Food Safety AuthorityAt the time, the EFSA also raisedordered to withdraw authorizations for (EFSA) had raised concerns regardingconcerns about the potential endocrineplant protection products containing risk, and when those concerns were notdisrupting properties of chlorprophamchlorpropham by Jan. 8, 2020. quelled, authorization was withdrawn. and asked for a risk assessment reportIt became clear that with such tox-CIPC alternatives are available, butfor non-target anthropods. When thisicological reality we could no longer, in none so far work as welland theyrecould not be finalized, the Europeangood conscience, proceed and looked more expensive. Could deregulation inCommission (EC) asked the applicants,towards the future, says Cattoor. Europe impact North Americas potatoa task force made up of Certis Europe,The authorities granted a grace growers? No one knows for sure, but pre- Aceto and UPL, to submit counterargu- period which expired on Oct. 8, 2020 and paredness is key.ments to their findings.told Member States to make the grace Their defense wasnt convincingperiod as short as possible. Some coun-THE UNEXPECTED BAN enough to suppress concerns, explainstries waited until the grace period ended, When chlorpropham came up for re-eval- Nele Cattoor, regulatory affairs managerwhile others withdrew chlorpropham ear-uation in 2018, the EFSA was asked toat Belgapoma non-profit associationlier. In Belgium, growers were given until examine a renewal assessment reportfor the Belgian potato trade and process- June 30, 2020.prepared by Risk Management Solutionsing industry.The first proposal of our Ministry (RMS). Several concerns were raisedIn March 2019, the task force with- was actually to withdraw it from January during the course of re-evaluation. drew support for all representative uses,2020 onwards, explains Cattoor. We Specifically, the ESFA found the high- Cattoor says. In other words, no safe usemanaged to explain the seasonal charac-est chronic exposure to chlorprophamcould be identified. teristics of the potato crop and storage and residues had, at that time, exceeded theEuropes potato sector was caught bygot extension until the end of June 2020.The Belgian Ministry of Public Health did not want to open the door to misuse by allowing it to be used at the start of the next season, she adds. They wanted the 2019 crop to be the last treated crop.CHOOSING AN ALTERNATIVEFollowing non-renewal, growers and storage specialists began experiment-ing with CIPC alternatives. There are several available, including ethylene gas, spearmint oil (sold as Biox-M), orange oil (sold as Argos), and 1,4DMN (sold as DormFresh in Europe). Although there are alter-natives available, each seems to present a challenge. While 1,4DMN 38IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'