On Monday 5 September, Pesticide Action Watch (PAN Europe) expressed concern that pesticides that are dangerous to human health but currently on sale, although about to be banned, could be granted a derogation. The organisation urges member states to oppose any such move.
A document published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in early August causes PAN Europe extreme concern. This is a protocol to implementation of Article 4.7 of Regulation 1107/2009 governing the marketing of plant health products in the EU. The protocol concerns derogations of up to five years to the ban on dangerous active substances, in cases of a "serious danger for plant health" that cannot be dealt with by other available means, including non-chemical methods.
The derogation will be used for pesticides that are currently still on the EU market but are about to be banned, such as classified carcinogenic, reprotoxic or endocrine disruptive pesticides like the pesticides Glufosinate (causing birth defects), Epoxiconazole (causing birth defects, liver cancer), Flumioxazin (toxic for reproduction and for endocrine organs), Pymetrozin (causing cancer, reducing fertility and affecting endocrine organs).
In the protocol, EFSA says that some of these weed-killers could be granted a derogation so they can be used for specific crops in the event of a serious danger to plant health, rather than being banned. In EFSA’s view, the above herbicides could be eligible for the derogation although the opinion itself says that weeds do not strictly represent a direct danger to plant health, explains PAN Europe, adding that the protocol is a "scandal" for both sustainable agriculture and for human health. Hans Muilermans, PAN Europe’s chemicals specialist, says "EU member states should not accept this EFSA protocol since it is undermining sustainable agriculture and decades of environmental and health policy".
EFSA thinks that due to the growing resistance of weeds to herbicides, a range of four herbicides needs to be available with a different working spectrum for every crop in the EU. PAN Europe fears that one of the above four weedkillers may be a pesticide that is dangerous to human health but could be granted a derogation. The NGO says this would contradict EU Directive 128/2009 on the sustainable use of pesticides. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)