Asulam for Bracken Control - Update



This gets complicated, quickly, but I hope that this summary will provide a starting point for those who are interested in the control of bracken. There is much more information on the bracken control website.

In response to an application for an Emergency Authorisation to allow Asulam to be used for bracken control in 2020, a draft approval was issued by Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) of HSE, in November 2019. However, this contains restrictions that would prevent Asulam being applied from ground-based equipment, and for aerial spraying, increase the buffer zone against surface water bodies from 50m to 90m. The Bracken Control Group is unhappy with both these proposals. In addition, a list of information required to support future applications was introduced that will be very difficult to achieve.

A discussion, hosted by Defra, took place with CRD and Natural England in February. It was agreed that the Bracken Control Group should prepare an additional application to set out information that was not available when the original application was submitted in July 2019. This application was submitted to CRD on 7th April. It is hoped that this will provide enough new information to convince CRD, the Expert Committee on Pesticides and the Pesticides Minister in Defra (Victoria Prentis MP) that the emergency authorisation to allow Asulam to be used this year should include ground-based application of Asulam and that the aerial spraying buffer zone against surface water bodies should not be increased from 50m.

A newsletter has been circulated around the Bracken Control Group, which provides links to other information.

The Asulam treatment season starts on 1st July, and the existing draft EA approval is due to come into effect on 18th May, to allow time for stocks to be issued to distributors for sale to end-users. It is not clear when a response will be received to this latest application, but information will be circulated as a newsletter. To sign up to the bracken control newsletter got to the Updates page on the website.

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