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Disclaimer

Pesticide Incident Reporting Database

Welcome to the Canadian Pesticide Incident Reporting database. This database gives you access to information concerning suspected adverse effects to Canadian marketed pesticides as reported to Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA).

In order to access the database, please carefully read the following information.

What is the Canadian Pesticide Incident Reporting Program?

Health Canada's PMRA is responsible for the collection and assessment of incident reports for Canadian marketed pesticides. Health professionals and laypersons can report pesticide related incidents to Health Canada either via the manufacturer, who, as of April 2007, is required by law to report them to Health Canada, or directly to Health Canada by using the form for the public available on the PMRA website.

Incidents are classified into six major categories:

• effects on humans,
• effects on domestic animals,
• effects on the environment,
• residues in food,
• packaging failure, and
• effects identified in scientific studies.

Incidents are further classified by severity. In the case of humans for instance, incidents are classified as minor, moderate, major or death depending on the type of symptoms reported.

Health Canada uses incident reports to help identify any potential risks to humans or the environment from the 'real-life' use of pesticides. Potential risks are identified by searching the information provided in incident reports for trends, such as repeated effects or multiple incidents for a particular pesticide, or serious effects. The identification of a trend is not, by itself, proof of the association of a pesticide with a health or environmental risk but it triggers the need to further investigate a potential association. If a trend is identified, Health Canada will evaluate the information in conjunction with scientific literature. If evaluation of this information identifies a safety issue, appropriate action will be taken. Such action could range from a minor label change to discontinuation of the product.

What is the Canadian Pesticide Incident Reporting Database?

The incident reporting database is the computerized database that houses all incident reports for Canadian marketed pesticides that have been submitted to Health Canada. The database contains reports of incidents that have occurred in Canada and, in some cases, the United States. The database is used as a tool to store and retrieve essential information from incident reports. It cannot be used on its own for the evaluation of pesticide safety. Health Canada receives incident reports daily, including new reports and additional information for reports previously submitted. As such, the information contained within the database is constantly changing and being updated.

The information stored in the incident reporting database is available to the public with the exception of personal information, as defined by the Privacy Act, confidential test data and confidential business information. This information is provided with the understanding that the data will be appropriately referenced and used in conjunction with the caveat statement below.

Please note that the information provided in the incident reporting database originates with an organization not subject to the Official Languages Act and is available on this site in the language in which it was provided. To use the incident reporting database you must first read and confirm your understanding of the following information.

Limitations of Information in Incident Reports

Caveat:

1. The information in this database is based on information from incident reports submitted to Health Canada. Incident reports are suspected associations which reflect the suspicion, opinion or observation of the individual reporter. The data presented reflects, as much as possible, the reporter's observations and opinions, and does not reflect any Health Canada assessment of association between the pesticide and the effect(s).

2. Reporting of a particular effect does not necessarily mean that it was caused by the suspected pesticide. The purpose of the Pesticide Incident Reporting Program is to detect possible signals of adverse effects associated with the use of pesticides through trends analysis. Additional scientific investigations are required to validate signals from the database and to establish a cause and effect relationship between a pesticide and an adverse effect. Assessment of causality must include other factors such as the frequency, severity, plausibility, quality of the information contained in the report, amount of pesticide used, underlying diseases, etc.

3. Certain reported effects may occur spontaneously. They provide a background rate in the general population and do not necessarily have a causal relationship with the pesticide.

I HAVE READ THE DISCLAIMER. PROCEED TO INCIDENT REPORTS