104. The Chairman of the OECD Pesticides Forum, Ir. J. van der Kolk, gave a brief outline of activities being undertaken in that forum related to harmonization of data requirements for pesticide registration.
105. The Committee noted a variety of information available from governments on relevant matters. This included the availability of a database on maximum residue limits of Member Countries being revised and enlarged by Canada, which could be accessed on the World-Wide Web[33]; procedures for establishment of total diet studies available on diskette from GEMS/Food or from the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA); raw pesticide monitoring data and information on detentions from the US FDA and US Department of Agriculture; and information on import detentions available directly from the US FDA on the World-Wide Web.
106. The Committee was further informed that, in response to a UN Environment Programme effort to develop a legal instrument to reduce or eliminate the production and use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), WHO/IPCS was preparing an updated risk assessment of 12 selected POPs including DDT, aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex and toxaphene.
