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Consultation Document on "Addendum to the document: Transitioning the Legal Establishment of Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) for Pesticides from the Food and Drugs Act to the Pest Control Products Act: Consultation on Proposed MRLs" - Proposed Maximum Residue Limit - PMRL2009-06

Notice to the reader: The online consultation is now closed. Comments and suggestions received during the public consultation period are being considered in the finalization of this document. The final report will be made available as soon as possible.

18 February 2009
HC Pub: 8022
ISBN: 978-1-100-11632-7 (978-1-100-11633-4)
Cat. No.: H113-24/2009-6E (H113-24/2009-6E-PDF)

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On 20 December 2006, Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) published a document entitled Proposed Maximum Residue Limit document PMRL2006-01, Transitioning the Legal Establishment of Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) for Pesticides from the Food and Drugs Act to the Pest Control Products Act: Consultation on Proposed MRLs. The document included over 2000 MRLs proposed by the PMRA prior to the new Pest Control Products Act coming into force on 28 June 2006, that had not been prepublished for comment in the Canada Gazette, Part I. These MRLs were legally established on 9 July 2008 via publication in the Established Maximum Residue Limit document EMRL2008-02, Transitioning the Legal Establishment of Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) for Pesticides From the Food and Drugs Act to the Pest Control Products Act: Establishment of MRLs.

It was subsequently noted that MRLs for four chemicals were inadvertently omitted from PMRL2006-01. As a result, under the authority of the Pest Control Products Act, Health Canada's PMRA is consulting on these outstanding MRLs via this addendum (see Next Steps).

To comply with Canada's international trade obligations, consultation on the proposed MRLs is also being conducted internationally by notifying the World Trade Organization, as coordinated by the Standards Council of Canada.

The proposed MRLs in Canada in or on food, to be added to those already legally established for each chemical, are as follows.

Table 1: Proposed Maximum Residue Limits for Clethodim, Fosetyl-Aluminum, Iprodione and Lambda-cyhalothrin
Common Name Residue Definition MRL (ppm) Food Commodity
Clethodim (E,E)-(±)-2-[1-[[(3-chloro-2-propenyl)oxy]imino]propyl]-5-
[2-(ethylthio) propyl]-3-hydroxy-2-cyclohexen-1- one, including metabolites containing the 2-cyclohex-1-enone moiety
3.0 Coriander seed
0.7 Fenugreek seed
Fosetyl-aluminum aluminum tris(O-ethylphosphonate) 40 Bushberries (Crop Subgroup 13-07B), turnip tops
15 Turnip roots
10 Green onions
9.0 Citrus fruits (Crop Group 10)
0.3 Succulent shelled English peas, succulent shelled garden peas, succulent shelled green peas, succulent shelled peas, succulent shelled pigeon peas
0.05 Caneberries (Crop Subgroup 13-07A); fat, meat and meat byproducts of cattle, goats, hogs, horses and sheep; ginseng roots
0.02 Milk
Iprodione 3-(3,5-dichlorophenyl)-n-isopropyl-
2-4-dioxoimidazolidine-1 carboxamide, including the metabolites 3-isopropyl-N-(3,5-dichlorophenyl)-
2,4-dioxoimidazolidine-1-carboxamide and 3-(3,5-dichlorophenyl)-
2,4-dioxoimidazolidine-1-carboxamide
13 Leeks
Lambda-cyhalothrin (S)-α-cyano-3-phenoxybenzyl (Z)-(1R,3R )-3-(2-chloro-3,3,3-trifluoroprop-1-enyl)
-2,2-dimethylcyclopropanecarboxylate and (R)-α-cyano-3-phenoxybenzyl (Z)-(1S,3S )-3-(2-chloro-3,3,3-trifluoroprop-1-enyl)
-2,2-dimethylcyclopropanecarboxylate, including the epimer, in a 1:1 mixture, (R)-α-cyano-3-phenoxybenzyl (Z)-(1R,3R )-3-(2-chloro-3,3,3-trifluoroprop-1-enyl)
-2,2-dimethylcyclopropanecarboxylate and (S)-α-cyano-3-phenoxybenzyl (Z)-(1S,3S)-3-(2-chloro-3,3,3-trifluoroprop-1-enyl)
-2,2-dimethylcyclopropanecarboxylate
0.02 Asparagus

A complete list of all MRLs established in Canada can be found on the PMRA's MRL webpage.

International Situation and Trade Implications

MRLs may vary from one country to another for a number of reasons including differences in pesticide use patterns and the locations of the field crop trials used to generate residue chemistry data. For livestock commodities, differences in MRLs can also be due to different livestock feed items and practices.

Table 2 identifies differences between the proposed Canadian MRLs, American tolerances (tolerances listed in Next link will take you to another Web site 40 CFR Part 180 by pesticide) and Codex1 MRLs (Next link will take you to another Web site Codex MRLs searchable by pesticide or commodity). For many of the proposed Canadian MRLs there is no corresponding American tolerance and Codex MRLs have not been established for any of the chemicals/commodities proposed herein.

Table 2: Comparison of Canadian MRLs, American Tolerances and Codex MRLs (where different)
Common Name Food Commodity Canadian MRL(ppm) American Tolerance (ppm) Codex MRL (ppm)
Clethodim Coriander seed 3.0 No tolerances established No MRLs established
Fenugreek seed 0.7
Fosetyl-aluminum Citrus fruits (Crop Group 10) 9.0 5.0 No MRLs established for fosetyl aluminum on any commodity
Caneberries (Crop Subgroup 13-07A) 0.05 0.1*
Ginseng 0.05 0.1
Fat, meat and meat byproducts of cattle, goats, hogs, horses and sheep 0.05 No tolerances established on any livestock commodity
Milk 0.02
Iprodione Leeks 13 No tolerance established No MRL established
Lambda-cyhalothrin Asparagus 0.02 No tolerance established No MRL established

* Covered by the tolerance established for "Caneberry, subgroup 13A".

Next Steps

The PMRA invites the public to submit written comments on the proposed MRLs up to 75 days from the date of publication of this document. Please forward your comments to Publications (see the contact information on the cover page of this document). The PMRA will consider all comments received before making a final decision on the proposed MRLs and posting a corresponding Established Maximum Residue Limit (EMRL) document on the PMRA website.

Appendix I

Crop Groups: Numbers and Definitions
Crop Group Number Name of the Crop Group Food Commodities Included in the Crop Group
10 Citrus fruits Australian desert limes
Australian finger limes
Australian round limes
Brown River finger limes
Calamondins
Citrus citron
Citrus hybrids
Grapefruits
Japanese summer grapefruits
Kumquats
Lemons
Limes
Mediterranean mandarins
Mount White limes
New Guinea wild limes
Oranges
Pummelos
Russell River limes
Satsuma mandarins
Sweet limes
Tachibana oranges
Tahiti limes
Tangelos
Tangerines
Tangors
Trifoliate oranges
Uniq fruits
13-07A Berry and small fruit

Caneberry Subgroup
Blackberries
Loganberries
Raspberries (red and black)
Wild raspberries

Cultivars and/or hybrids of the above
13-07B Berry and small fruit

Bushberry Subgroup
Aronia berries
Buffalo currants
Chilean guavas
Currants (red and black)
Elderberries
European barberries
Gooseberries
Highbush blueberries
Highbush cranberries
Huckleberries
Honeysuckle
Jostaberries
Lingonberries
Lowbush blueberries
Native currants
Salal berries
Saskatoon berries (juneberries)
Sea buckthorn

Cultivars, varieties and/or hybrids of these

References

1 Codex is an international organization under the auspices of the United Nations that develops international food standards, including MRLs.