Quinolin-8-ol (8-hydroxyquinoline) renewed until 30 June 2032 as a candidate for substitution: drip irrigation in permanent greenhouses only, 22 days before harvest; EFSA — HPLC-MS/MS with an LOQ of 0.01 mg/kg, ADI and ARfD 0.017 mg/kg bw
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1152, published on 12 June 2025, renews from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2032 the approval of the fungicide and bactericide quinolin-8-ol as a candidate for substitution, because Regulation (EU) 2017/776 classified it as toxic for reproduction category 1B. According to the act, human exposure is negligible under the conditions imposed. In its conclusion of 28 February 2024 EFSA assessed the use against soil-borne pathogens in tomatoes grown in permanent greenhouses; the negligible exposure assessment could not be concluded because of data gaps on residues.
- Annex: quinolin-8-ol, CAS No 148-24-3, CIPAC 677, purity ≥ 990 g/kg. Only drip irrigation by professional users in permanent greenhouses with controlled exchange of material and energy, only with a closed transfer system for mixing and loading; the last application at least 22 days before harvest, and soil from the greenhouse may be reused outside it no earlier than one year after the last treatment. The restriction to fungicide and bactericide use was not kept; the substance moves to Part E of Regulation (EU) No 540/2011 and is deleted from the list in Regulation (EU) 2015/408.
- Methods (EFSA): residues in food and feed of plant origin and in animal products — HPLC-MS/MS, LOQ 0.01 mg/kg; soil 0.05 mg/kg; water 0.1 µg/L; air 1.5 µg/m³ (without an AOEL it could not be confirmed whether this limit is sufficient); urine 0.05 mg/L, but according to EFSA the method does not determine free and conjugated quinolin-8-ol — a data gap. Enforcement residue definition in plants — quinolin-8-ol and its salts expressed as quinolin-8-ol; the method also measures conjugates.
- Toxicology (EFSA): clastogenic in vitro, clastogenic and aneugenic potential in vivo not resolved; classification Repr. 1B (H360D) for omphalocele in rabbits at 15 and 60 mg/kg bw per day. Reference values derived by EFSA after the experts’ meeting (not peer reviewed): ADI and ARfD 0.017 mg/kg bw, AOEL and AAOEL 0.01 mg/kg bw per day — from a LOAEL of 5 mg/kg bw per day with a factor of 300. Exposure of children to vapour exceeds the (A)AOEL in the EFSA model, although the model for spray applications most likely overestimates it — issue not finalised.
- Residues (EFSA): in four trials ripe tomatoes below the LOQ, in one sample of green tomatoes 0.02 mg/kg — four additional trials are needed; no rotational crop studies. Provisional assessment: 0.2 % of the ADI and 7 % of the ARfD. The act requires confirmatory information: studies on operator and worker exposure and on metabolism in rotational crops by 2 July 2027, and studies excluding clastogenic and aneugenic potential by 2 July 2026.