Introduction

The following sources provide access to scientific reviews of active ingredients or formulated products carried out by international organizations or registration authorities in other countries or regions.

Scientific reviews carried out by other bodies may be very useful for registration authorities for various reasons. Of particular interest are the following aspects:

• Lists of endpoints used by other registration authorities or reviewers can be compared with the data in the registration dossier received by the registrar.
• Risk assessments for human health or environment carried out by other bodies may be compared with and/or extrapolated to the situation under review.
• Efficacy assessments conducted elsewhere may be extrapolated to the situation under review.

In many cases, the sources below provide access to full registration reviews or monographs, covering all aspects of the pesticide and its use. In some cases, the evaluations only concern a specific aspect of the pesticide, e.g. assessments needed to establish a MRL.

Reviews by international organizations

JMPR

The FAO/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues consists of the FAO Panel of Experts on Pesticide Residues in Food and the Environment and the WHO Core Assessment Group on Pesticide Residues. The JMPR provides advice to the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Pesticide Residues regarding the establishment of Acceptable Daily Intakes (ADI), Acute Reference Doses (ARfD) and Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs).

The list of pesticides evaluated by the JMPR can be accessed here.

The reports and evaluations are issued in two parts:

Part I: Residues (by the FAO Panel of Experts - “R” in the list);

Part II: Toxicology (by the WHO Core Group - “T” in the list)

WHO Toxicological monographs for the JMPR can be accessed through the INCHEM website.

JMPS

The FAO/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Specifications (JMPS) makes recommendations to FAO and/or WHO on the adoption, extension, modification or withdrawal of specifications for pesticides.

The JMPS elaborates, under the new procedure, an evaluation report and a hazard summary for each pesticide having a specification.

The list of pesticide specifications set by the JMPS, and the accompanying evaluations, can be accessed here.

IARC

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) is a specialized institution of WHO which carries out reviews of environmental factors that can increase the risk of human cancer, including some pesticides, and publish them in the form of scientific monographs. The complete list of IARC Monographs can be accessed here.

They can also be accessed through the searchable INCHEM web site.

Note that only for a limited number of pesticides, IARC reviews have been carried out.

IPCS INCHEM

In addition to the sources listed above, the IPCS INCHEM website provides other chemical safety information from Intergovernmental Organizations. Useful for pesticide registrars may be the Environmental Health Criteria (EHS) Monographs, Health and Safety Guides (HSGs) and the International Chemical Safety Cards, among others.           
 

Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade

The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade publishes a Decision Guidance Document (DGD) for each chemical included in Annex III. A DGD gives a summary of the chemistry hazards and risks of the chemical and explains why Parties to the Convention have banned or severely restricted it. The DGD also provides information on possible alternatives.

Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants publishes a Risk Profile and a Risk Management Evaluation for all POPs listed in the Convention.

A Risk Profile provides a summary of the identity, uses, fate and toxicity of the chemical. It also includes a hazard assessment. A Risk Management Evaluation summarizes control measures that can be taken to reduce risks, information on alternatives, and the conclusion drawn by the Convention regarding the inclusion of the chemical on one of its annexes.

The Risk Profiles and Risk Management Evaluations can be accessed by clicking on one of the POPs and, at the top of the window that opens, clicking on the relevant link.

Reviews by national or regional organizations

European Union - EFSA Conclusions

• Draft Assessment Reports (DARs) or Rapporteur Assessment Reports (RARs) are initial reviews which have been prepared by the so-called Reporting Member State (RMS). They are the most detailed reviews of a pesticide available in the EU, but they are not yet peer-reviewed by other EU Member States or by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
  DARs and RARs can be downloaded from the EFSA Consultations page on the EFSA web site.
  
  1. Scroll down on this page and click on the box "autocomplete - start typing". Type the name of the active ingredient for which you wish to see the DAR or RAR.
  2. One or more relevant topics will show in black below the box. Select "Public consultation on the active ingredient ...".
  3. A new page opens where the link to the DAR/RAR is shown under "Documents". You can download a zip file with all the non-confidential chapters of the DAR/RAR.
  
  
• European Union (Conclusions)
  EFSA then prepares Conclusions, summarising the outcome of the peer review process of the DAR/RAR. These can be obtained from the EFSA Publication page.
  1. In the Search box, in the middle of the page, enter the common name of the active ingredient; then select it.
  2. Under "Topic" click on "Pesticides"
  3. Under "Type" click on "Conclusion on Pesticides"
  4. Then select one or more documents from the list that appears. Note that EFSA may review the same active ingredient more than once, in particular if certain additional data were requested during the first review
  
  

• European Union (Review report)
  1. Access the EU Pesticides Database
  2. Click on “Active substances”
  3. Find a specific active ingredient by entering it in the filter box, or scroll down the active substance list.
  4. Click on the relevant active substance that appears below the box
  5. Review reports (or Inclusion or Renewal reports) are listed and can be downloaded.

• Biocide active ingredients are evaluated in Europe by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), The scientific assessments and the ECHA opinions about authorization of biocides can be found on its website.
  Open the Information on Biocides page
  1. Find a specific active ingredient by entering it in the "active substance details" search box, lower on the page
  2. If a legal notice appears, approve it.
  3. Click the search button.
  4. If there are more substances shown, go the relevant one, but do not click on the substance name!
  4. Do click the view icon (=blue eye), at the right-hand side of the table, to get more detailed information on the biocide.
  5. Click on "Assessments" tab, to view the assessment report of the active ingredient, as well as the ECHA/BPC Opinion (if available)

United States of America - EPA Pesticide Chemical Search

The Office of Pesticide Programs of the US Environmental Protection Agency produces different review reports of pesticides submitted for registration or for a residue tolerance.

• EPA Pesticide Fact Sheets contain information about pesticides, such as their physical properties, use information, scientific findings and any pertinent regulatory activity. They can be found through the Pesticide Chemical Search web site.

1. Type the name of the active ingredient in the "chemical name" box and clock "Go".
2. If more than one chemical are shown, click on the relevant one.
3. Click on the "regulatory action" tab at the top of the page, to obtain further information.
4. Click on the active green icon to see the list of background documents on the registration/evaluation process of this compound. If a Fact Sheet or a RED is available, they will be listed here.

• Reregistration Eligibility Documents  (REDs) are elaborated when a pesticide has to be re-registered in the US. THey contain a complete or partial evaluation of the pesticide. REDs can be obtained through Pesticide Chemical Search, like the Pesticide Fact Sheets.
• Data evaluation records (DERs) are evaluations of scientific data submitted by pesticide registrants in support of pesticide registration to assess potential human health and environmental effects. These studies generally fall under the subject areas of toxicology, environmental fate and groundwater, ecological effects, residue chemistry, product chemistry, and efficacy. DERs are thus partial, detailed, reviews of specific data from the registration dossier, and they may not be available for all subject areas. They can be accessed through Pesticide Chemical Search (see above). When in step 3, click on the "science reviews" tab at the top of the page, to obtain further information.

Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)

The Hazardous Substances Data Bank is a database that focuses on the toxicology of potentially hazardous chemicals. It provides information on human exposure, industrial hygiene, emergency handling procedures, environmental fate, regulatory requirements, nanomaterials, and related areas. The information in HSDB has been assessed by a Scientific Review Panel and is published as part of TOXNET of the United States National Library of Medicine. The HSDB provides the sources from which the data have been extracted.Access HSDB through the PubChem web page of the US National Library of Medicine.1. Type the name of the active ingredient in the search box2. Select the result which matches best, and click on its name or on "Summary"3. This open up a compound summary page with on the right-hand side the table of contents for ALL PubMed entries4. If you wish to see only HSBD entries, scroll down to the last section in the table of contents ("Information Sources")5. At the top of the resulting page, open "Filter by Source" and select TOXNET - HSDB6. Only the HSBD content is shown.Further guidance on accessing HSDB Content from PubChem can be found here.

Australia Chemical Review

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) as a Chemical Review Program which can reconsider the registration of agricultural and veterinary chemicals in the marketplace if potential risks to safety and performance have been identified. The list of active ingredients reviewed or under review, and review reports for many pesticides, can be accessed here.

Canada Registration Review

Health Canada provides short summaries of its registration reviews on its web site, in the form of registration decisions, re-evaluation decisions, special review decisions. Summaries of evaluation reports are also found on the web site, but full evaluation reports should be requested by email from Health Canada.
All documents can be accessed here.