UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460 

OFFICE OF CHEMICAL SAFETY AND 

POLLUTION PREVENTION 

MEMORANDUM 

Date: April 9, 2014 

SUBJECT: Propargite: Tier I Review of Human Incidents 

PC Code: 09760 I DP Barcode: 04 19224 

Decision No.: 485493 

Petition No.: NA 

Risk Assessment Type: NA 

TXR No.: NA 

MRID No.: NA 

Registration No.: NA 

Regulatory Action: NA 

Case No.: NA 

CAS No.: 2312-35-8 

40CFR: NA 

Ver.Apr.08 

Shanna Recore, Industrial Hygienist D _ ~ n / 

Toxicology and Epidemiology Branch 1 n .., ~ '\....CJ-- / 

FROM: 

Health Effect o;~sion (7509P) A-NV"" /) :/_;jli 

/rf Elizabeth Evans, Environmental Protection Speciali stUf..~l(_lfjfv / 

/' Toxicology and Epidemiology Branch 

Health Effects Division (7509P) /) 1 

THROUGH: David Miller, Acting Branch Chief {41,) /)/~ 0? rtf/'/! 7tH { 

Toxicology and Epidemiology Branch 

Health Effects Division (7509P) 

TO: Marquea King, Risk Assessor 

Risk Assessment Branch IV 

Health Effects Division (7509P) 

and 

Wilhelmena Livingston, Chemical Review Manager 

Risk Management & Implementation Branch 2/4 

Pesticide Re-evaluation Division (7508P) 

Summary and Conclusions 

Based on the low frequency and severity of incident cases reported for propargite, there does not 

appear to be a concern at this time that would warrant further investigation. The Agency will 

continue to monitor the incident information and if a concern is triggered, additional analysis 

will be included in the risk assessment. 

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Detailed Review 

I. ACTION REQUESTED 

This review is intended to fulfill our requirement to docket summaries of incident data that were 

reported to the Agency, as well as to ensure human incident data and the Agricultural Health 

Study (AHS) are part of the problem formulation phase of registration review. Reports of 

adverse health effects allegedly due to a specific pesticide exposure (i.e., an "incident") are 

largely self-reported and therefore, generally speaking, neither exposure to a pesticide or 

reported symptom (or the connection between the two) is validated or otherwise confirmed. 

Typically, causation cannot be determined based on incident data. However, incident 

information can be an important source of feedback to the Agency: incidents of severe outcome, 

or a suggested pattern or trend among less severe incidents, can signal the Agency to further 

investigate a particular chemical or product. Observational epidemiology studies relate the risk 

of disease, e.g., cancer, and exposure to an agent such as a pesticide product in the general 

population or specific sub-groups like pesticide applicators. 

II. BACKGROUND 

Propargite is an insecticide used to control mites on a variety of field, fruit, and vegetable crops, 

as well as ornamentals. It is sold in both liquid and wettable powder formulations. Propargite is 

applied by aerial application, chemigation, airblast sprayer, and high pressure handwand. 

For this evaluation, both the OPP Incident Data System (IDS) and the Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (CDC/NIOSH) 

Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risk-Pesticides (SENSOR) databases were 

consulted for pesticide incident data on the active ingredient Propargite (PC codes: 097601). 

The purpose of the database search is to identify potential patterns in the frequency and severity 

of the health effects attributed to Propargite exposure. Propargite is not included in the AHS, 

and therefore this study does not provide information for this report. 

III. RESULTS/DISCUSSION 

a. IDS (Incident Data System) 

OPP's IDS includes reports of alleged human health incidents from various sources, including 

mandatory Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Section 6(a)(2) reports 

from registrants, other federal and state health and environmental agencies, and individual 

consumers. Since 1992, OPP has compiled these reports in IDS. IDS contains reports from 

across the U.S. and most incidents have all relevant product information recorded. Reports 

submitted to the IDS represent anecdotal reports or allegations only, unless otherwise stated in 

the report. 

IDS records incidents in one of two modules: Main IDS and Aggregate IDS: 

o Main IDS contains incidents resulting in higher severity outcomes and provides 

more detail with regard to case specifics. This system stores incident data for 

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death, major and moderate incidents, and it includes information about the 

location, date and nature of the incident. Main IDS incidents involving only one 

active ingredient (as opposed to pesticide products with multiple active 

ingredients) are considered to provide more certain information about the 

potential effects of exposure from the pesticide. 

o Aggregate IDS contains incidents resulting in less severe human incidents (minor, 

unknown, or no effects outcomes). These are reported by registrants only as 

counts in what are aggregate summaries. 

For the Main IDS, from January 1, 2009 to January 15,2014, there was 1 incident reported for 

propargite in the database. It is classified as moderate severity. 

In Aggregate IDS, from January 1, 2009 to January 15,2014, there were no reported incidents 

involving propargite. Overall, there are few incidents involving propargite reported to IDS. 

b. SENSOR-Pesticides 

The SENSOR-Pesticides database covers 11 states from 1998-2010, although reporting varies 

from state to state. Cases of pesticide-related illnesses are ascertained from a variety of sources, 

including: reports from local Poison Control Centers, state Department of Labor workers' 

compensation claims when reported by physicians, reports from State Departments of 

Agriculture, and physician reports to state Departments of Health. Although both occupational 

and non-occupational incidents are included in the database, SENSOR-Pesticides focuses on 

occupational pesticide incidents, and is of particular value in providing that information. The 

state coordinator at each of the 11 respective state Departments of Health conducts case followup activities such as obtaining medical records to verify symptoms and severity. Using 

standardized protocol and case definitions derived from poison center reporting, the state 

SENSOR-Pesticide coordinator enters the incident information into the state-based system which 

is sent to NIOSH annually to be aggregated. 

A query of SENSOR-Pesticides 1998-2010 identifies a total of 63 cases involving propargite (pc 

code 097601), stemming from 31 events. There was a spike in reports in 2000 (n=30), including 

24 cases in one multiple exposure agricultural drift event in California; all were occupational and 

all but one (moderate) were low in severity. The products implicated in this event were Omite30W and Backlash 4E) involved multiple active ingredients. After this spike of reports in 2000, 

case reports drop to an annual average of 1.5 case reports. It is noted that a total of 58 cases 

were reported by California. 

Of the 63 cases, 35 involved a single ai (pc code 097601). Of the single ai cases, 33 were workrelated and two were not work-related; 29 occurred in an agricultural setting. Seven cases were 

moderate in severity and 28 were low in severity. Unfortunately 6 of the 7 moderate severity 

cases did not include the case narratives (California cases 1999-2002) therefore a moderate 

severity case description table will not be provided here. In 2004 a moderate severity case report 

from California states, Case used the restroom after refilling a machine with the pesticide,· did 

not thoroughly wash the pesticide off his hands first. 

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I n terms o f symptoms, 71% o o f smg . : e at cases reported a dermal symptom (Table 1 ). 

Table I. SENSOR-Pesticides I 998-20 I 0: Reported 

Health Effects for single ai Propargite Cases 

N=35 

Health Effect # of Times Reported 

Dermal 25 

Ocular 13 

Respiratory 17 

Gastrointestinal 9 

Nervous System 9 

Cardiovascular 0 

* Cases may report multiple health effects 

c. Agricultural Health Study (AHS) 

The AHS is a high quality, prospective epidemiology study evaluating the link between pesticide 

use and various health outcomes including cancer. The AHS includes private and commercial 

pesticide applicators and their spouses. If there are AHS findings relevant to a particular 

pesticide going through registration review, the Agency will ensure they are considered in the 

problem formulationlscoping phase of the process and, if appropriate, fully reviewed in the risk 

assessment phase of the process. The AHS includes information on use of 50 different pesticide 

active ingredients commonly used in agriculture. Propargite is not included in the AHS, and 

therefore this study does not provide information for this report. 

IV. CONCLUSION 

Based on the low frequency and severity of incident cases reported for propargite in both IDS 

and SENSOR-Pesticides, there does not appear to be a concern at this time that would warrant 

further investigation. The Agency will continue to monitor the incident information and if a 

concern is triggered, additional analysis will be included in the risk assessment. 

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