Europe to ensure the correct use of pesticides

On 12 July 2006, the European Commission adopted a new thematic strategy on the sustainable use of pesticides. The aim of this new integrated pesticides policy is to ensure their correct use, to minimize the risk to health and environment, to improve the controls and monitoring, to ensure that users are correctly trained and well-equipped, to encourage the alternative methods and to inform the public about the use of pesticides and residue issues. In following years, the EU Member States will have to establish their National Action Plans to implement the strategy that suits best their situation. The use of pesticides generates various benefits - mostly economic - in particular for farmers. Pesticides improve the yields and protect the plants. But if not used properly, they can have an adverse impact on human health. As confirmed by scientists from Catholic University of Leuven, huge increase in the use of pesticides back in 70 and 80 caused in Belgium the increase of lymphoma cancer. The risks of excessive chemical flows to the environment can harm wildfire and be a threat for the biodiversity. The new European strategy thus creates a common framework which allows each Member States to establish a National action plan. Some countries, such as France, Germany and Sweden, have already paved the way. The VNR focuses on Denmark where a National Action Plan is being implemented in collaboration with the National Environmental Research Institute in Silkeborg. The Danish plan involves all relevant actors. It ensures that farmers are trained and encourages scientific research on new ways of controlling and reducing the use of pesticides. In France, the national plan focuses on monitoring pesticides' residues in food, visiting farmers on the ground, providing education and advice to pesticide users and carrying out research on how to optimize pesticide dosage.

European Commission | July 1, 2006

Tags:. .biodiversity. .thematic. .lymphoma. .dosage. .pesticides