Fertilizer Safety Data OK’d
April 29, 2008 Testing data for nitric acid demonstrates that fertilizer products are safe.
The international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has approved product testing data on nitric acid, the final step in a two-year regulatory review. OECD’s acceptance of the data concludes international reviews of the set of five product testing dossiers on 25 fertilizer materials.
The nitric acid data was generated by The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) and the European Fertilizer Manufacturers Association (EFMA) for inclusion into an international database of chemicals.
"The OECD approval is a resounding success for the fertilizer industry, finalizing seven years worth of efforts to demonstrate with scientific data that fertilizer products are safe," says TFI President Ford B. West. "TFI took the lead on this important initiative, which benefits the global fertilizer industry by generating scientific data that demonstrates fertilizers are safe when used as intended and pose no harm to industry workers, community members. or the environment."
The U.S. was the sponsor country for fertilizer products within the OECD process and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) served as the formal presenter. TFI was also present to provide technical support on the testing data. Successful adoption by OECD of these fertilizer products also confers regulatory approval through EPA’s High Production Volume (HPV) data challenge, and covers many of the important data points necessary in the current European Union’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) program.
"TFI has been utilizing this fertilizer product testing data since its development in 2003," said West. "International approval for this safety data is an essential next step given the globalization of the fertilizer industry and the increased efforts on the worldwide regulation of chemicals."
The phosphates and ammonia groups of fertilizer data were reviewed and accepted by OECD in April 2007 and the nitrate and sulfate products were approved in October of 2007
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