Carbendazim Withdrawal Confirmed
On 10th October the HSE formally issued a withdrawal notice for Carbendazim. Subject to stock levels Carbendazim will be available for sale and supply until 28th February 2017. End users will then have until 31st August 2017 to store, use and ultimately dispose of any existing stock.
The reason is illustrated in the statement provided by John Moverley, Chairman of the Amenity Forum:
"You will be aware that there are no carbendazim products authorised for use as plant protection products, but there are a small number registered for worm cast control (which is considered biocidal use). Following approaches by us to CRD for clarification on their future use, staff who deal with biocides have advised that the EU Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR) replaced and repealed the EU Biocidal Products Directive (BPD) on 1 September 2013. Vermicides were not under the scope of the BPD so the EU BPR introduced some transitional measures for vermicides and other biocidal products that were newly under the scope of the legislation, further details of the requirements can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/biocides/eu-bpr/transfer-from-uk-national-law.htm
"Carbendazim is not listed in the EU BPR Review Regulation (EU Regulation 1062/2014) for product type 16 and is currently not supported for review under the EU BPR. However the deadline for it to be supported under the transitional measures of the EU BPR was 1 September 2016. Following further investigation, ECHA have now confirmed to us that carbendazim has not been supported further, therefore the vermicidal biocidal products will not be able to be placed on the market or used after 1 September 2017."
The affected products are: Caste Off, Mascot Systemic, Ringer, Turfclear, Clayton, Cleancrop Curve and Turf Systemic Fungicide.
Currently Pitchcare have stock of Ringer Carbendazim.