PAN Europe, HEAL and EEB PRESS RELEASE

Brussels, 18 December 2008 – Health and environment non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have cautiously welcomed the proposed EU package on pesticides reached yesterday as a step towards better health through environmental protection.

Following years of political negotiations, the debate on the pesticide package entered yesterday a new stage, with a proposed deal between the Commission, French Presidency and a European Parliament delegation reaching agreement on a Regulation and a Framework Directive on the use and authorisation of pesticides.

Overall, PAN (Pesticides Action Network) Europe, the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) and the European Environment Bureau (EEB) consider that the proposed compromise agreement offers positive aspects, first of all because it means the creation of an EU-wide pesticides blacklist, which removes some of Europe’s most hazardous pesticides from the market – and therefore from food products grown in the EU (1).

We are happy to see that the proposed agreement includes criteria for banning pesticides that can cause cancer, DNA-mutation, reproductive problems and hormonal disruption‘, says Monica Guarinoni, Deputy Director at HEAL. ‚Only 22 substances will be withdrawn from the market, resulting in a much higher level of health protection, especially for children and vulnerable groups, although we would have liked the list to be larger and include developmental neurotoxic and immunotoxic pesticides‘ (2).

The major downside of the deal is that it did not include the Environment committee’s demand to eliminate the division of the EU into three authorisation zones. This omission reduces the control of member states over whether or not to reject a hazardous pesticide within their territory (3).

Regarding the framework directive on sustainable use of pesticides, Member States have to develop National Action Plans with clear targets on how and when to achieve quantitative use reductions.

„Although, we regret the absence of ambitious EU quantified reduction targets and incentives, we welcome the fact that member states will have to prepare national action plans with quantitative use reductions and the idea of applying integrated pest management from 2014“, Hans Muilerman, board member of PAN. „Making Integrated Pest Management (IPM) mandatory for every farmer in Europe presents a unique opportunity to achieve more sustainable agricultural practices,“ he continues.

On the Directive, Monica Guarinoni added „Banning the use of pesticides in public areas, such as parks and school grounds, is another measure that would help protect health. Although the current compromise does not include a total ban on pesticide use in public places, we hope member states and local authorities will pick up these measures in their local and national action plans. Some municipalities in Europe are already banning the use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes and our new campaign will encourage others to do so“ (4).

Although far from perfect, with a number of loopholes and derogations and based too much on risk rather than hazard and quantitative reductions, the proposed deal will allow the EU to move on to a better system without further delays. Health and environment groups therefore reluctantly advise the EU institutions to officially confirm the deal in January.

Notes to editors:

1 Other positive measures in the regulation are the introduction of mandatory record-keeping throughout the production chain; an obligation on industry to release all scientific articles showing the negative side-effects of pesticide application; consideration of the cumulative effects on health (though not on environment) within the testing and authorisation process; and better protection of bees.
2 The deal does not include developmental neuro- and immunotoxicity in the cut-off criteria, instead these are only taken into account in the setting of health standards.
3 Other negative aspects are that the assessment of endocrine disrupting is also delayed and the Commission has to come up with scientific criteria for their determination in 5 years, after which testing will take even more time to identify this dangerous group of pesticides; some specific categories though are included already in the cut-off.  Nor does the deal get rid of the so-called non-relevant metabolites, which gives the Member States the possibility to ignore toxic effects of metabolites.
4 The „Sick of Pesticides“ campaign on pesticides and cancer was launched in November 2008. The campaign website is available in French and English at www.pesticidescancer.eu

Contact:
Henriette Christensen, Pesticide Action Network Europe, Boulevard de Waterloo 34, B – 1000 Brussels, Tel:+32 2 289 13 09, email henriette@pan-europe.info; website: www.pan-europe.info

Monica Guarinoni, Deputy Director, Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL), 28 Boulevard Charlemagne, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: +32 2 234 3643 (direct). E-mail: monica@env-health.org Website: www.env-health.org

Christian Schaible, EU Policy Officer for Industrial Policies and Chemicals,  European Environmental Bureau, Boulevard de Waterloo 34 1000 Brussels ,  Tel. +32 (0)2 289 10 90, website : www.eeb.org

Geschrieben am Freitag, 19. Dezember 2008 und abgelegt unter Behörden reagieren, Gefahren durch Alltagschemikalien, Gesundheit, Krank durch Chemikalien, Krank durch Pestizide, Pressemitteilungen, Umweltschutz, Naturschutz. Verfolgen Sie die Diskussion zu diesem Beitrag per RSS 2.0 Feed. Sie können diesen Beitrag kommentieren oder einen Trackback von Ihrer eigenen Webseite setzen.