Report of the fifth WHOPES working group meeting : WHO/HQ, Geneva, 30-31 October 2001

Overview

The fifth WHOPES Working Group Meeting, an advisory group to the WHO Pesticide Evaluation Scheme (WHOPES), was convened at WHO Headquarters, Geneva, 30-31 October 2001. The objective of the meeting was to review the reports of the testing and evaluation of Olyset Net® (Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd, Japan) and bifenthrin 1 0% Wettable Powder (FMC, USA), for malaria vector control.

The meeting was opened by Dr M. Neira, Director, Communicable Disease Control, Prevention and Eradication. In her opening remarks she referred to vector control being an essential component of vector-borne disease control, especially in view of increasing drug resistance and the absence of vaccines. She stated that vector control is part of the preventive measures to reduce or interrupt transmission and plays an essential role in epidemic prevention and containment.

Dr Zaim also briefed the participants on the memorandum of understanding which has been signed between WHO and FAO in 2001, by which the two organizations have agreed to cooperate in a joint programme to develop specifications for pesticides. This unified procedure will enhance the development of high-quality standards for pesticides; their acceptability by governments, industry and traders, and make the development of such specifications more efficient and cost-effective to industry, to WHO and FAO. He noted that the procedure for the establishment of WHO specifications has, therefore, been revised and harmonized with the new procedure of FAO, which started in 1999, as described in the "Manual on the Development and Use of FAO Specifications for Plant Protection Products, fifth edition", published as FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper 149, available at http://www.fao.org/waicentlfaoinfo/agricultlagp/agpp/pestic id/. Or Zaim also noted that the first Manual on Development and Use of FAO and WHO Specifications for Pesticides is expected to become available in mid-2002. Under the "new" procedure the specifications do not necessarily apply to nominally similar products of other manufacturers, nor to those where the active ingredient is produced by other methods of synthesis. The scope of these new WHO specifications may be extended to apply to similar products when WHO has been satisfied that the additional products are equivalent to those which formed the basis of the reference specification.

The meeting was attended by 10 scientists (see list of participants, Annex 2). Dr B. Sharp was appointed as Chairman and Dr I. Vythilingam as Rapporteur. The meeting was convened in plenary sessions at WHO/HQ in Geneva, 30-31 October 2001, and the reports of the WHOPES supervised trials and relevant published literature, as well as the reports submitted by national disease and vector control programmes (see bibliography, Annex 1) were reviewed and discussed. Recommendations on the use of the above-mentioned products were made.