Application for the Reassessment of a Hazardous Substance under ...

SECTION 4 – IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT OFADVERSE AND BENEFICIAL EFFECTS (RISKS, COSTS ANDBENEFITS)4.1 Introduction4.1.1 The potential sources of risk to human health and to the environment are tabulated inTable 9.Table 9.Identification of potential sources of risk.Lifecycle ActivityFormulation &packagingLocal transportStorageUseDisposalAssociated Source of RiskAn incident during formulation or packagingTransport or handling incident on roads or during loading/unloadingresulting in spillage and subsequent exposure of people and/or theenvironmentIncident during storage, resulting in spillage and subsequent exposure ofpeople and/or the environmentExposure to users, bystanders and/or the environment during dilution,mixing or changing of cylinders or use, or through exposure to residues ontreated vegetation, soil, feed items.Disposal of the substance or containers, resulting in release of thesubstance and subsequent exposure of people and/or the environment4.2 IncidentsNew Zealand Incidents4.2.1 ERMA New Zealand notes the absence of relevant incident information relating tothe use of dichlorvos in New Zealand. This could be due either to a lack of incidentsor a lack of reporting/ monitoring.Overseas Reports4.2.2 USEPA (2006) discusses human incident data collected from the AmericanAssociation of Poison Control Centres. Although a large number (21006) ofexposures were reported, most involved homeowner products containing dichlorvosin association with other pesticides. The few reports involving dichlorvos alone,‗usually do not involve any significant acute symptoms that would require medicaltreatment‘. USEPA (2006) also discusses epidemiological studies examiningincreased incidence of childhood cancer and prostate cancer from exposure todichlorvos and concludes that confounding factors in the study design could explainany effects seen.4.2.3 USEPA (2006) also discusses environmental incident data reported from 1991 to2002 and concludes that the incident reporting system is inadequate to pick upwhether effects are occurring or not.4.2.4 APVMA do not include reporting of incidents in their draft review of dichlorvos(APVMA, 2008).Dichlorvos reassessment – application Page 40 of 436