Regulatory Control and Management of Public Health Pesticides in South Africa

Abstract

Pesticides used in residential settings may have harmful health effects. There are reports about pesticide poisoning in South Africa, especially among children under the age of five years. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Department of Health use the Fertilizers, Farm Feeds, Agricultural Remedies and Stock Remedies Act (Act No. 36) to ensure that pesticides are only registered after a rigorous science-based risk assessment. The Act 36 was designed primarily for agricultural pesticides. Therefore, guidelines have recently been developed to facilitate registration of PHPs. However, these guidelines do not provide guidance on acceptable methods for estimating residential exposures. Furthermore, inadequate monitoring and regulation of pesticides have resulted in the use of highly toxic pesticides in residential and commercial settings. Responsible government agencies and independent poisoning information centres (PICs) appear to lack the capacity routinely to report and investigate all pesticide-poisoning incidents adequately and comprehensively. Therefore, there is need to strengthen the capacity of responsible agencies as well as to conduct a revision of Act 36 in order to address critical gaps with regards to the registration, monitoring and surveillance of PHPs.