Photo by Dave Groeneweg

Health Canada has completed its re-evaluation of linuron, the active ingredient of several herbicides, and deemed it safe for continued use under specific conditions for specific crops. These include carrots, parsnips, potatoes and asparagus.

However, note the following cancelled uses on all product labels:  

-  Tree fruit (apple, peach, pear, plum/prune, cherry), corn (field and sweet), wheat, barley, oats, soybean, celery, Saskatoon berries, chokecherries, dill, coriander, caraway, sweet white lupins, and pre-emergent combined with post-harvest application to asparagus.

-  Airblast and right-of way application equipment.

Cancelled uses with an extended phase-out schedule:

A subset of cancelled uses were found to lack suitable alternatives for the management of weeds, for which growers would face significant challenges:

-  Chokecherries (fall seeded plantings), dill, coriander, caraway, celery, and sweet white lupins.

As a result, the implementation of the re-evaluation decision for these cancelled minor specialty crops will be delayed for an additional two years to allow growers to find pest management solutions. During this extended period, the overall exposure to human health and the environment will be significantly reduced by the removal of other cancelled uses, as well as through the implementation of additional interim mitigation measures that will be required when applying linuron to these cancelled minor uses. 

Here is the link to the Re-Evaluation Decision for linuron from Health Canada issued November 5, 2020. https://bit.ly/3571cdT

Source:  Health Canada November 5, 2020