Re-evaluation Note REV2018-06, Pest Management Regulatory Agency Re evaluation and Special Review Work Plan 2018-2023

Table of Contents

• Background
• Current Re-evaluation Work Plan
• New Re-evaluation Initiations

Background

The purpose of this document is to inform registrants, pesticide regulatory officials and the Canadian public of the re-evaluation and special review work planned by Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2023. This work plan includes, all ongoing re-evaluations and special reviews as well as new re-evaluations expected to be initiated in this time frame. This document replaces the previous Pest Management Regulatory Agency Re-evaluation and Special Review Work Plan 2017-2022.

The PMRA regulates pesticides in Canada, with the primary objective of protecting the health of Canadians and the environment. A pesticide may only be sold or used in Canada if it has been registered or otherwise authorized under authority of the Pest Control Products Act. The PMRA uses a rigorous science-based risk assessment approach to ensure that the product meets health and environmental standards and has value.

As part of the post-market program, registered pesticides are re-evaluated on a cyclical basis using modern assessment techniques and current scientific information. In addition, pesticides may also be re-evaluated as a result of changes in the information required or the procedures used by the PMRA to determine that the pesticide meets current health, environment and value standards. A special review may also be initiated at any time if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the health or environmental risks, or the value, of a pesticide is no longer acceptable. Special reviews differ from re-evaluation in that a special review is intended to examine only specific aspects of a pesticide.

The PMRA publishes all post-market proposed decisions for public consultation. Following consultation, comments and information submitted by the public and other stakeholders are considered before the PMRA issues a final decision. Stakeholders are encouraged to become aware of upcoming consultations, as well as new initiations, for active ingredients. All published documents related to re-evaluations and special reviews are available on the Pesticides and Pest Management portion of Canada.ca.

This five-year work plan may change in response to workload and to emerging issues that require priority action; thus, while this work plan will be updated annually, during the course of the year interested stakeholders can monitor the PMRA’s Public Registry to view the announcement of new re-evaluations and special reviews, as well as the publication of proposed and final decisions.

Current Re-evaluation Work Plan

In developing the work plan, the PMRA has taken a risk-based approach to prioritize re-evaluations and special reviews where potential risk issues have been identified. Re-evaluations of older pesticide active ingredients registered before 1995, as well as special reviews initiated in 2013, have been prioritized to be completed by 2020. The anticipated publication dates outlined in the work plan represent the most up-to-date information on the status of the re-evaluation or special review. The work plan for the post-market reviews related to pesticide active ingredients registered before 1995, cyclical active ingredients and special reviews are included in Tables 1-6.

The PMRA currently has several post-market reviews ongoing related to the neonicotinoid pesticides imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam. All three active ingredients are currently under general re-evaluation as well as separate targeted re-evaluations related specifically to effects on pollinators. In addition to the re-evaluations, special reviews are underway for all three chemicals related to effects on squash bees. Further, an additional two special reviews are underway for clothianidin and thiamethoxam related to effects on aquatic organisms. The combined work plan for the neonicotinoid post-market reviews is provided in Table 7 and 8.

New Re-evaluation Initiations

The initiation date of the re-evaluation of a particular active ingredient is generally based on the date of its initial registration, or the date of the last completed re-evaluation. A complete list of all re-evaluations anticipated between April 2018 and March 2023 is included in Table 9. When these re-evaluations are initiated a notice will be posted to the PMRA’s Public Registry.