Brussels, 06/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's environment committee chaired by Jo Leinen (PES, Germany) is calling for safety checks to be tightened up for biocides (e.g. pest and germ control products such as insecticides, disinfectants and repellents, except for medicines and agricultural pesticides) and products treated with biocides. The EP set out its proposal on 4 October, in Brussels, during second reading on the proposed review of marketing authorisation rules and the use of biocides in the EU (amendment to Directive 98/8/EC) which, for the first time, will list the active products that cannot be used in such products.
With almost unanimous approval of the rapporteur, Krista Klass (EPP, Germany) by 57 votes in favour, one against and 2 abstentions, MEPs call for stringent criteria so that substances that are harmful for public health, animal health and the environment are not used for controlling pests unless strictly necessary. On the use of carcinogenic agents, the parliamentary committee considers such products should not be authorised unless there are no alternative products offering greater efficacy and safety, or when such products allow further harm to health or the environment to be prevented. Regarding endocrine disruptors (affecting hormones), the European Commission is invited to set out better criteria by the end of 2013. The parliamentary committee calls on the plenary session to approve regular review of biocides, suggesting approvals or renewals with maximum validity of 10 years, and less for problematic substances.
The environment committee advocates that applications for products with new active substances, and for the least dangerous biocide products, could be submitted to the chemicals agency (ECHA) from 2013, and other categories from 2017 (and not 2020 as the Council would like). However, instead of a centralised approval procedure at European level, MEPs prefer authorisations to be issued by member states and for there to be a mutual recognition system for national authorisations. In order to make up for a gap in current legislation, all products treated with biocides (and not just biocides on their own) should be covered by the directive and be clearly labelled, MEPs say. They also call for specific checks on products containing nano-ingredients, so that they may be the subject of scientific assessment and for their presence to be notified on the labelling of products containing them. (AN/transl.jl)