By Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages
 

The Brazilian National Agency of Sanitary Surveillance (Anvisa) made a technical visit to a company (whose name was not revealed) to verify how seeds were treated with a product made using the fungicide thiram. The aim of the government agency was to gather information and data for its decision on the re-evaluation of the active ingredient, which should be defined by the year 2020.
 

Thiram is used in Brazil for grain seed treatment and soil preparation for potato planting. In the case of seeds, the treatment process aims to maintain the viability of the grains by the addition of agrochemicals, to reduce the occurrence of diseases.
 

During the technical visit, Anvisa observed and evaluated the risks facing the workers who work with the product during the corn seed treatment process, as well as the exposure of the people from this industry to thiram. They also discussed with the company's specialized technicians the details of the product handling and observed its application in a production lot.
 

The technical team consisted of servers from the Revaluation Coordination (Creav) of the Monitoring and Risk Assessment Management (Gemar), which is linked to the General Management of Toxicology (GGTOX) of Anvisa.
 

Anvisa sent two technicians on a three-month internship at the BfR (Federal Risk Assessment Institute) in Germany for training, improving and better understanding worker risk analysis processes.
 

Anvisa also said that it expects to finalize opinions on thiram and abamectin, the last active ingredients in RDC 10/2008 (Resolution of the Collegiate Board), which proposed the reassessment, in 2020. In addition, the new list of ingredients that will go through this process will be published this year.