Argentine Beekeepers' Magazine

(Espacio Apícola, August 30th 2021) Resolution 414/2021 of the National Food Health and Quality Service (Senasa, Argentina) came into force last August 7th, prohibiting the importation of Chlorpyrifos, in its formulations such as Chlorpyrifos ethyl and Chlorpyrifos methyl, as of next September 21st and its elaboration and packing as of November 5th of the current year. Its commercialization and use being definitively prohibited throughout the national territory, as of November 5th, 2022.-

The resolution was followed by another banning fipronil a few days later, as we communicated last week (read it here).

In a previous report, prepared and published by the Comahue Center for Environmental Toxicology and Agrobiotechnology Research (CITAAC-UNCo) on April 8th , it is stated that: "Chlorpyrifos is a non-systemic, broad-spectrum insecticide, belonging to organophosphates family, which is used to combat pest insects in a wide range of crops and is also used to control vectors of veterinary diseases. It is used in a wide application in different extensive and horticultural crops. Based on evidence of human and environmental toxicity several countries have already restricted or prohibited its use.

From the analysis of the information and the risk assessments, according to the application levels and the reported environmental concentrations the authors conclude that the risks of exposure to chlorpyrifos for our country are unacceptable for most of the organisms under study. The most sensitive to its chronic effects are aquatic macroinvertebrates, along with some fish. Lately, chlorpyrifos is the pesticide that has been reported most frequently at risky levels in food and it is even found in breast milk. Based on these data and the danger to human health, in particular due to its harmful effects on the neurological development of children, it is considered that the use of this compound in the country should be restricted. Both at agrochemicals level and natural principles as well as better agricultural practices, the existing alternatives allow to affirm that there is an important variety of options that professionals and technicians have to analyze the best therapeutic schemes, avoiding the risks that the current use of chlorpyrifos implies."

An interdisciplinary work between professionals from different faculties of the UBA and the CITAAC (Universidad del Comahue), published a worrying article in the Acta Toxicológica Argentina journal entitled "The organophosphate chlorpyrifos as an estrogen disruptor and risk factor for breast cancer" in 2015.

In the apicultural field there have been reports for more than 25 years referring to the lethal impact of chlorpyrifos in Apis mellifera and consequently in the entire range of pollinators and beneficial insects, "Bees and Agrotoxics" is a book with an exhaustive compilation of scientific evidence published about this and other agrochemicals.