Tag: pesticides

Health campaigners and NGOs have called on the EU to ban all endocrine-disrupting chemicals used in the production of some pesticides and everyday consumer products. But further bans will make it increasingly difficult for farmers to protect their crops from diseases without necessarily improving human health or the environment, argues Craig Winneker.

Europe’s grassland butterfly population has dropped “dramatically” over the past 20 years, a stark warning that many of Europe’s species may be heading for extinction, says a new report by the European Environment Agency.

We are witnessing a new phenomenon where online tools, and especially the mobilising force of social media is no longer restricted to high politics or pure monitoring of EU events, but it is entering the realm of regulatory issues, from pesticides to intellectual property, where policy makers, both on national and EU level, are keen (and sometimes forced) to listen to the public, says András Baneth.

The European Union's food safety regulator has added another insecticide to the list of crop chemicals it suspects of playing a role in declining bee populations.

Europe is on the brink of a landmark ban on the world's most widely used insecticides, which have increasingly been linked to serious declines in bee numbers. Despite intense secret lobbying by British ministers and chemical companies against the ban, revealed in documents obtained by the British newspaper, the Observer, a vote in Brussels today (29 April) is expected to lead to the suspension of the nerve agents.

National experts from EU states are today (15 March) poring over details of a new text on the proposed two-year ban on pesticides linked to catastrophic bee colony collapses, as the EU struggles to sign off on the measure.  

The EU has launched a rescue plan for Europe’s dwindling honeybee colonies: a 24-month ban on three widely-used neonicitinoid pesticides that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) says pose “high acute risks” to pollinators. 

Pesticides and agricultural intensification are the main causes of biodiversity destruction, suggesting the predictions of the famous book 'Silent Spring' by Rachel Carson are now becoming reality, writes Hans Muilerman.

An interview by EurActiv with Anne Glover, European Commission chief scientific adviser, on GMO crops  triggered a response on EurActiv.fr last week (27 July) from French MEP Corinne Lepage. Lepage says Glover was "wrong" to state there was "no more risk in eating GMO food than eating conventionally farmed food."

The EU's risk assessment system for chemicals has derailed and should be reformed urgently in favour of a science-based system that takes full account of the work undertaken by the scientific community, argues Hans Muilerman.

After years of trying to persuade consumers that their products present no health or environmental risk, the pesticides industry has now recognised its failure to address wider society concerns. Friedhelm Schmider of industry group ECPA promises "a huge change of mindset" in engaging with consumers and farmers.

When blood-red sludge broke through containment walls in the Hungarian town of Ajka in October 2010, the immediate concern was the safety of hundreds of nearby residents. In the end 10 people died from exposure and the toxic muck spilled into waterways, including the Danube, prompting alarms downstream.

Counterfeit pesticides are currently slipping through the regulatory net and need to be addressed, argues Phil Newton, senior communications manager at the European Crop Protection Association, in an exclusive commentary for EurActiv.

Detailed human health and environmental risk assessment of some 1,000 active substances authorised for use in pesticides before 1991 has led to the removal of more than two thirds of them from the market.

Support in the European Parliament for new measures banning a number of hazardous pesticides appears to be strong, as MEPs ready for a vote on the issue at their plenary session in Strasbourg next week.

The European Parliament's environment committee approved a ban on pesticides that are toxic to human health, setting the stage for a showdown with EU member states which favour a more lenient approach.

If the EU pesticides review goes through as it currently stands, food prices will at worst more than double, according to a new industry-funded impact assessment.

Debate over the use of pesticides in agriculture is taking a new twist as an EU proposal to substitute the most dangerous substances with safer alternatives encounters opposition from farmers, who argue that bans will only exacerbate the crisis caused by rising food prices.

The Council's political agreement bans the marketing and use of substances proven to be carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic for reproduction amid claims from manufacturers that the new rules will drive up food prices even further.

The Slovenian EU Presidency has delayed a key vote on pesticides until June, following a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels yesterday (19 May) that revealed a divergence of views over which substances should be kept off the market. 

A study by the European Pesticides Action Network (PAN) reveals that wines on sale in the EU may contain residues of up to 10 different pesticides potentially harmful to human health. But manufacturers argue that the quantities are so tiny that drinking wine poses no health risk.

Overly stringent EU rules on pesticides will lead to a decline in European agricultural self-sufficiency resulting in ever-increasing food prices and job losses in the agri-food sector, warns a recent industry-funded study. The findings were immediately rejected by environmental activists, who derided the study as "professional scaremongering" by "lobbyists behaving like a posse of corporate cowboys."

The Agriculture Council has reached a political agreement on controversial new EU rules governing pesticide use. But the content of the agreement is being kept from the public until January, fuelling speculation that the Portuguese EU Presidency is trying to 'bury' the file before the holidays.