Brussels, 28/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Pesticide Action Network Europe (Pan Europe) expressed its grave concern on Monday 28 September that the European Commission could renew the marketing approval for pesticides with properties that interfere with the hormonal system, ignoring an alarming new report from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
According to EFSA's technical report published on Wednesday 23 September, 15 of the pesticides currently being assessed by the European Commission for market approval are of “critical concern” in terms of their endocrine disrupting properties.
Eleven of these pesticides have been on the market for more than ten years and market authorisation expires at the end of this year. Yet, the Commission's Directorate General for Health (DG SANTE) has merely been preparing to renew their authorisations, says PAN Europe.
Substances that are of critical concern are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction (CMR) and persistent, bioaccumulable and toxic (PBT), including those that are very persistent and very bioaccumulable. Regulation 1107/2009/EC on the marketing approval of phyto-pharmaceutical products sets criteria for CMR and PBT substances, calls for specific scientific criteria to be established for the determination of endocrine disrupting properties and, while awaiting the adoption of these criteria, enacts interim criteria.
The Commission must act to set appropriate criteria to regulate such substances, PAN Europe argues. “Exposure to endocrine disruptors is an issue of global concern and EU regulators must take serious actions to limit human and environmental exposure to these harmful chemicals” said Angeliki Lyssimachou, PAN Europe's toxicologist.
The EFSA report re-examines the available scientific literature - in particular, industry files and Commission risk assessment reports - with a view to identifying endocrine disrupting pesticides, on the basis of interim criteria and OECD guidelines.
It shows that the interim criteria are not sufficient to identify the pesticides which disrupt the hormonal system and are, therefore, not up to the task of protecting human health and the environment from exposure to these chemicals. Of 15 pesticides of critical concern, six completely failed to meet the interim criteria and two remained inconclusive.
PAN Europe is very worried that DG SANTE is planning to extend the re-approval period of pesticides which do not meet the interim criteria. “Prolonging a pesticide's authorisation is a regular tactic of the Commission”, states PAN Europe.
The EFSA report also concludes that, four years after Regulation 1107/2009/EC came into effect, several industry files and numerous regulatory risk assessments studies still have major data gaps in evaluating the harmful effects of pesticides on the hormonal system. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)