The French MEPs, Eric Andrieu and Louis-Joseph Manscour (S&D), who have expressed alarm at the amount of toxicity there is from chlordecone (the active substance of a highly toxic pesticide), have urged the European Commission to request a lowering of maximum residue levels (MRL) for this pesticide to 0.01 mg/kg for all animal and plant products and for the current regulations to be extended to cover fish and crustaceans.
This dual request is set out in a written question addressed to the European Commission on 25 June.
The substance, which has been banned in the United States since the late 1970s, was not banned in France until 1990 but was used until 1993 by derogation in the Antilles to combat the banana weevil. Today, it is the most widely used pesticide to be found in watercourses of the French West Indies.
The two MEPs write: “The EU imports products on which chlorodecone has been used, especially from the Antilles, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and South America. The reintroduction on the European market of such products is therefore a danger for the health of European consumers”. They believe urgent action should be taken and that EU legislation should be changed.
Regulation EC No396/2004 concerning MRL for pesticides present in or on food and feed does not fix a MRL for foodstuffs based on fish, crustaceans, molluscs and other sea or freshwater fish products. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)