PMRA Restricting Use of Chlorothalonil Fungicide

-----Original Message----- From: Tom Hsiang [mailto:thsiang@uoguelph.ca]
Sent: Sunday, February 14, 2016 6:58 AM To: exec.director@wctaturf.com
Subject: PMRA restricting use of Chlorothalonil fungicide

Hello Turf Associations,

Here's an item that I just got which may have major impact for the turf industry in Canada, especially golf courses. The Health Canada Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) is proposing to limit use of chlorothalonil (active in Daconil and other products) on turf to a single time per year, and just for snow mold control. This would eliminate all the other uses for the large variety of turf diseases.

The PMRA examined the toxicological risk data for chlorothalonil and possible exposure for all uses in Canada, and decided that exposure risks were too great for many agricultural uses (including all uses on ornamentals).

The PMRA document "chlorothalonilREV2016-06.pdf" is available by request to the PMRA (http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/pest/part/consultations/_rev2016-06/index-eng.php), or at this site: http://turfsociety.com/pdf/chlorothalonilREV2016-06.pdf

The full title of this document is "Chlorothalonil, Amendment to the Proposed Re-evaluation Decision", dated 11 February 2016.

The PMRA is accepting public comments at this time until April 11, 2016. The comments should be directed to the email address pmra.publications@hc-sc.gc.ca. A government representative when asked about the PMRA commenting period and its potential impact, stated: "As for comments received by PMRA and their impacts, this depends and varies case-by-case.  Typically if the product poses serious health and environmental risks that cannot be mitigated further by reduced applications, reduced rates or longer re-entry intervals, the decision will stand.  What can be negotiated is the time-frame for phase-out."

The PDF document does list many uses that will still be allowed, such as on asparagus, carrot, celery, curcurbits, ginseng, mushroom, parsnip, potato, strawberry and tomato. So perhaps an argument can be made about the importance of this fungicide to the turf industry, also considering that it is not a consumed product.

Regards,

Dr. Tom Hsiang, Professor, Environmental Sciences, Bovey 3227  
University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada,  N1G 2W1  
tel: +1-519-824-4120 ext. 52753   fax: +1-519-837-0442   http://www.uoguelph.ca/~thsiang