EU pesticides clear out 

Some 320 pesticide active ingredients will come off the market next year as part of the European Commission’s new approach to the evaluation of pesticides. The move comes as part of a measure to improve safeguards for the environment and human health.

Pesticide approval systems require manufacturers to ‘defend’ pesticides, that is prove that their products meet today’s high safety standards. According to the European Commission (EC), most of the chemicals (see table) targeted under the Agricultural Pesticides Directive (91/414) are going because of economic reasons. The manufacturers no longer want to spend the large sums of money on safety tests to support their products(1). 
    Manufacturers wishing to maintain their pesticides must submit completed data packages to the national member state regulators and the European Food Safety Authority (soon to be formed) by May 2003. 
    In addition to the 320 pesticides being revoked, a further 49 pesticides have been given a temporary reprieve or ‘derogation’ for what farmers and growers are calling essential uses. The manufacturers of these pesticides have refused to provide adequate safety data. At the same time, there is no readily available alternative for certain crops and the European Commission considers that there are no concerns linked to their restricted and time-limited use.
    The loss of these 320 substances is not the end of the story. Up to 150 additional substances could be withdrawn in July 2003 under a second notification call that the Commission expects to adopt shortly for another 200 substances. It is expected that industry will decide not to defend many of these substances and the Commission will rule on their fate early in 2003. 
    Taking into account the 19 pesticides already banned by the Commission, the 320 about to go and the 150 that may follow, this will represent a loss of more than 60% of all the pesticides that were on the market in 1993. The Commission aims to have taken decisions on all the defended substances by an extended deadline of the end of 2008. 
    The UK consultancy Phillips McDougall estimates that of all the 500 or so pesticides to be revoked by 2008, only 126 are ‘commercially significant’ having a market value of US$560 million(2).
    In early June 2002 the European Parliament reluctantly accepted the Commission’s suggested extension to 2008. The Parliament’s Environment Committee has made a point of condemning the slow progress of the European Commission’s review of pesticide active ingredients. (DB)

1. 320 pesticides to be withdrawn in July 2003, press release, European Commission, 4 July 2002, http://europa.eu.int/comm/press_room/index_en.htm
2. Agrow 405, 26 July 2002.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 57, September 2002, page 8]