US EPA

1360536 

Journal Article 

Pesticide regulations and residue problems in Japan 

Fukunaga, K; Tsukano, Y 

1969 

1 

Residue Reviews
ISSN: 0080-181X 

HAPAB/70/00446 

REF:11 

HAPAB Three laws in Japan are concerned with pesticides for plant protection. The Agricultural Chemicals Control Law is aimed primarily at ensuring the quality of pesticides and plant growth regulators and preventing inferior products from reaching the market. No pesticide is permitted to enter commerce without registration by the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. The law was amended in 1963 to strengthen regulatory measures for preventing fishery damages. The Poisonous and Deleterious Substance Control Law regulates pesticides with high mammalian toxicity from the standpoint of public health. Until recently, no legal regulatory measures have actually involved pesticide residues in food crops. Acting under the Food Sanitation Law, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has been conducting toxicological studies of pesticides and surveys of actual pesticide residue levels in crops since 1963 for the purpose of establishing pesticide tolerances in agricultural commodities. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry launched in 1967 a 4-year special project for investigating the relations between the levels of pesticide residues and various conditions of field applications. This project covers about 200 pesticide-crop combinations with 60 pesticide chemicals and 31 crops and is aimed at obtaining sufficient data to be used in establishing new recommendations for pestidide applications by which levels of pesticide residues can be maintained within the tolerances. As a result of these studies, the Ministry of Health and Welfare issued official tolerances for arsenic, gamma-BHC, DDT, lead and parathion in apples, cucumbers, grapes and tomatoes on March 30, 1968. On the same day, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry announced new recommendations for the use of arsenic, lead, BHC, DDT, lindane and parathion on the above crops. Since the use of organomercury fungicides for rice blast control caused problems of mercury residues in rice, it was decided in May 1966 to replace these fungicides with either antibiotics, organochlorine or organophosphate compounds. The Ministry allowed 3 years for this replacement program. It was concluded that chemical pest control will be continued in Japan but that withdrawal of poisonous pesticides and the process of regulatory programs are expected to lay the foundation for the safe use of pesticides. MONITORING AND RESIDUES 70/04/00, 141 1969