Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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UK government agrees high level principles for stewardship regime for rodenticides
A cross-government 'Oversight Group' has agreed a set of high-level principles to assist industry in developing stewardship regimes to control the use of rodenticides.
Regulatory risk assessments concluded that the outdoor use of First and Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (FGARs and SGARs) present a higher level of risk to animals such as predatory birds and mammals, than would normally be considered acceptable.
As a result, outdoor use of these rodenticides would normally be banned. However the Government recognises that, despite carrying these risks, outdoor use of rodenticides is sometimes necessary as part of properly managed rodent control strategies - and to authorise these rodenticides for use outdoors, it must be assured that the risks will be properly managed. One way of providing that assurance is through industry-led stewardship regimes.
The Oversight Group consisting of officials from the Health & Safety Executive, HSE Northern Ireland, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, Public Health England, Natural England, the Welsh and Scottish Governments and an independent scientific adviser, has agreed the principles that industry must follow if they want to set up a stewardship regime.
Any Rodenticide Stewardship Regime is built on:
* using Integrated Pest Management, including use of rodenticides, involving a hierarchy of risk controls for rodents
* using rodenticides responsibly, when demonstrated they are needed, because of their potential threat to human, animal health and the environment
* being applicable to all suppliers, handlers and professional users of rodenticides approved under stewardship to address these risks
* being robust, effective and workable, while remaining as simple as possible
* covering the whole life-cycle of the rodenticide products: manufacture, supply chain, end-use, disposal and environmental fate
* enabling good practice in the control of rodent populations as part of an integrated pest management system, while minimising resistance build-up and secondary poisoning in non-target species
Delivering key benefits such as:
* governance of the supply chain, which gives governance over and provides the driver for later stages
* a competent workforce capable of delivering stewardship standards and of demonstrating an appropriate understanding and attitude toward case-specific control of rodents and use of rodenticides
* monitoring compliance with the regime and its environmental impacts, and if possible of the level of conflict reduction - i.e. an assessment of whether rodenticides and stewardship together are actually tackling the problems.
The new regime, managed by the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use, will shortly be launched and will adhere to the high level principles. This will help to provide robust assurance that the continued use of FGARs and SGARs will use a hierarchy of risk controls for rodents, promoting responsible use and good practice by all suppliers and professional users.
More information on the agreed principles can be found at:
Image courtesty of The British Pest Control Association:
30th July 2015