Conclusion on the peer review of the pesticide risk assessment of the active substance quartz sand European Food Safety Authority

Quartz sand is one of the 295 substances of the fourth stage of the review programme covered by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2229/2004(3), as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1095/2007(4). Quartz sand was included in Annex I to Directive 91/414/EEC on 1 September 2009 pursuant to Article 24b of the Regulation (EC) No 2229/2004 (hereinafter referred to as, the Regulation.), and has subsequently been deemed to be approved under Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009(5), in accordance with Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/2011(6), as amended by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 541/2011(7). In accordance with Article 25a of the Regulation, as amended by Commission Regulation (EU) No 114/2010(8), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is required to deliver by 31 December 2012 its view on the draft review report submitted by the European Commission in accordance with Article 25(1) of the Regulation. This review report was established as a result of the initial evaluation provided by the designated rapporteur Member State in the Draft Assessment Report (DAR). The EFSA therefore organised a peer review of the DAR. The conclusions of the peer review are set out in this report. Austria being the designated rapporteur Member State submitted the DAR on quartz sand in accordance with the provisions of Article 22(1) of the Regulation, which was received by the EFSA on 12 March 2008. The peer review was initiated on 7 August 2008 by dispatching the DAR to the notifiers: Task force of Stahler Agrochemie GmbH & Co, KG and Avenarius Agro GmbH (Notifier A), Flugel GmbH (Notifier B), Nera Agro spol. s.r.o. (Notifier D), Chema sp.zo.o. (Notifier E), and on 20 October 2010 to the Member States for consultation. Following consideration of the comments received on the DAR, it was concluded that EFSA should conduct a focused peer review in the area of mammalian toxicology and deliver its conclusions on quartz sand. The conclusions laid down in this report were reached on the basis of the evaluation of the representative uses of quartz sand as a repellent for use on deciduous and coniferous trees in forestry, as proposed by the notifiers. Full details of the representative uses can be found in Appendix A to this report. In the area of physical-chemical properties, identity and methods of analysis two data gaps were identified; one for batch analysis for the notifier Chema and the other for particle size distribution for Chema and the Task force. Based on the representative uses, no areas of concern or data gaps were identified in the mammalian toxicology section. There is no consumer exposure as these products are not used on edible crops. "Quartz sand" is a stable inorganic compound. It is insoluble and known to be inert to most mineral acids and bases. Considering the nature of the substance and the method of application leading to negligible levels of environmental exposure, further consideration of its fate and behaviour in the environment was concluded to be unnecessary. Due to negligible levels of environmental exposure arising from the representative uses, the risk can be considered low for non-target organisms.