Good news. There has been a breakthrough in the long running saga of Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) stewardship. Whilst it is not exactly a green light for the continued use of these products, the lights have definitely now changed from red to amber.
Dr Alan Buckle chair of Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use (CRRU), who has coordinated the stewardship proposals, said: “Yesterday (1 October) HSE indicated that the stewardship proposals submitted by the Professional Pest Control and Local Authority Sector Group on 19 September are considered to be basically acceptable. HSE is therefore prepared to allow the stewardship approach to the use of SGARs by public health professionals to go ahead.”
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A formal statement from HSE will be made at a later stage and there will no doubt be ‘nits still to be picked’ at the consultation stage but essentially this is a good step in the right direction. An immediate benefit should be the unlocking of the log jam of product authorisations under the Biocidal Product Regulation (BPR). Whilst a few products made it through the BPR process before the SGARs stewardship situation developed, many others have been stuck in the system, awaiting clarification on the approved label wording, covering things like where products can be used – in open areas, around buildings etc – and by whom. Readers will recall that the propsals submitted on 19 September were the third set to be prepared. Read about the background to why a third set had to be prepared. We will bring you a fuller report in the next issue of Pest Magazine due out later this month. |
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