It was announced on 12 March that the European Commission had completed its 16 year review of existing pesticide active ingredients approved for the market prior to 1993.
The programme was laid down under Directive 91/414/EEC and covered mainly, but not exclusively, agricultural actives. Over 1,000 substances were reviewed, of these the vast majority (67%) did not qualify because their dossiers were either not submitted, incomplete or withdrawn by industry. 7% of dossiers submitted failed the review. Only 26% of substances were approved.
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Concerns over such a large-scale loss of pesticides and their potential effects, particularly within niche markets, have been raised by the agrochemical industry. These losses also effect the number of actives available for use in professional pest control. Is this the shape of things to come regarding the Biocidal Products Directive? To promote the end of this review programme, the Commission has produced a fact sheet entitled EU Action on Pesticides. On 16 March the Commission launched an excellent new pesticide database detailing the status of all these active substances. It can be accessed by clicking here. |
