UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460 

OFFICE OF CHEMICAL SAFETY AND 

POLLUTION PREVENTION 

MEMORANDUM 

Date: January 8, 20 IS 

SUBJECT: Propanil: Tier I Review of Human Incidents 

PC Code: 028201 DP Barcode: 0424891 

Decision No.: 42444 I 

Petition No.: NA 

Risk Assessment Type: NA 

TXRNo.: NA 

MRIDNo.: NA 

Registration No.: NA 

Regulatory Action: NA 

Case No.: NA 

CAS No.: 709-98-8 

40 CFR: NA 

Ver.Apr.08 

FROM: Shanna Recore, Industrial Hygienist A l . _ , " 0 _ /'\, 1 _ 

Toxicology and Epidemiology Branch c.ftV\-l/~ ~ 

:~::e:Fi::,v:~:::::~l Protection Specialist CZIJC ~ 

THROUGH: 

TO: 

Toxicolog

Health Effe

y 

cts 

and 

Division 

Epidemiology 

(7509P) 

Branch 

/) I /1, J ~ -1 r.r :/IIIPL utrJdiA ~· David Miller, Acting Branch Chief 1 

Toxicology and Epidemiology Branch 

Health Effects Division (7509P) 

Mohsen Sahafeyan, Risk Assessor 

Risk Assessment Branch II 

Health Effects Division (7509P) 

and 

Bonnie Adler, Chemical Review Manager 

Risk Management & Implementation Branch 5 

Pesticide Re-evaluation Division (7508P) 

Summary and Conclusions 

Based on the low frequency and low severity of incident cases reported for propanil 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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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 

Propanil is a selective post-emergent general use herbicide registered to control broadleaf and 

grass weeds on rice. It is also registered (but not currently marketed) for turf use at commercial 

sod farms. 

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 propanil (pc code: 119031). The 

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

the health effects attributed to propanil exposure. Propanil 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: 

 
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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 

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, 2010 to December 17, 2014, there was 1 incident reported 

involving propanil for the single chemical only in the database. This incident was classified as 

minor severity. There were 2 additional incidents reported involving more than one chemical. 

These incidents were classified as moderate severity. 

 

In Aggregate IDS, from January 1, 2010 to December 17, 2014, there were no incidents reported 

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

b. SENSOR-Pesticides 

The SENSOR-Pesticides database covers 12 states from 1998-2011, 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 12 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 review of SENSOR-Pesticides 1998-2011 identifies 10 cases involving propanil. All cases 

were low in severity. One case involved a single ai and nine cases involved multiple active 

ingredients. The single ai case is described as follows, “...as he was driving, a crop duster 

sprayed him as it was making application to adjacent rice fields.” This case experienced severe 

headache and nose irritation. 

 

All ten cases were bystanders exposed by drift (off-target movement of the chemical) via aerial 

applications in Louisiana or Texas. The most recent case was reported in 2004. All cases were 

low in severity and reported headaches and eye or respiratory irritation. Six cases also reported 

difficulty breathing and nausea. 

c. Agricultural Health Study (AHS) 
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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 formulation/scoping phase of the process and, if appropriate, fully reviewed in the risk 

assessment phase of the process. The AHS includes information on use of 80 different pesticide 

active ingredients commonly used in agriculture. Propanil 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 low severity of incident cases reported for propanil 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.