BAN
TOXIC
12
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BAN
TOXIC
12
Scroll to explore
How safe is your food?
Not as safe as it might seem.
Background
Since 2011, the most toxic pesticides to human health, wildlife and the environment are subject to very strict rules, to be quickly banned from EU fields and from consumers’ plates.
Among other things, these pesticides can alter the reproductive system, cause hormonal disruptions resulting in various cancers, developmental disorders and/or cardiovascular problems. Some are more toxic to wildlife, but most combine several of these adverse effects.
In this context, their ban must have been the first priority for public authorities to better protect EU citizens and the environment. This campaign reveals quite the opposite! Far from decreasing, the exposure of European citizens to these substances has actually risen over the last 10 years:
- 55 most harmful pesticides are still authorized in agricultural fields, leaving farmers, residents & bystanders and the environment directly at risk.
- Consumer exposure to one or several of these pesticides has increased by more than 50% in ten years.
Member States failed to meet their legal obligation to ban these pesticides. Instead, they have constantly prioritized the interests of agribusiness over the protection of our health and that of the environment.
WHY?
Member States and their regulatory agencies are responsible for the substitution of these substances by safer alternatives. However, we observe that this legal obligation is not respected.
- The agribusiness industry, which makes so much profit from its toxic substances, lobbied fiercely to make substitution practically impossible.
- Some Member States are openly boycotting substitution.
- The European Commission turns a blind eye to these practices by embedding the rules of substitution as designed by the industry and by not reminding Member States to their legal obligation to substitute. In addition, the Commission further contributes to this vicious circle by proposing the prolongation and renewal of these toxic substances.
This situation leads to a constant prioritization of the interests of agribusiness over the protection of our health and that of the environment.
WHAT ARE WE ASKING FOR?
Member States and their regulatory agencies are responsible for the substitution of these substances by safer alternatives. However, we observe that this legal obligation is not respected.
- Immediate ban of the Toxic Twelve
- Review of all the national authorisations to ensure their complete phase out by 2030
- Independent revision of the rules of substitution in 2022
- No more systematic prolongation and renewal of these toxic substances from today
- No residues in food by 2035
WHO ARE WE?
We are a small team of people committed to pushing forward pesticide-free agriculture, better health and more nature.
Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) is an umbrella organisation founded in 1987, which brings together consumer, public health, environmental organisations, and women’s groups from across Europe. For the past decade, we and our organisation members fought against the continuous prolongation and renewal of these toxic substances. We provides scientific and empirical evidence of their toxicity for humans, animals, the environment and denounced the unfair influence of industry on the regulatory and decision-making processes.
SPREAD THE WORD
Salomé ROYNEL
Campaigner
salome@pan-europe.info
+33 7 86 39 72 74
Hans MUILERMAN
Chemicals Coordinator
hans@pan-europe.info
+31 6 55 80 72 55
Candidates for Substitution
A plant protection product (“pesticide”) is a formulation composed different components, including one or more active substances working against pests and plant diseases. In the EU, all those active substances must be subject to a risk assessment and approval decision at European level prior their incorporation in plant protection products. Those later are regulated at Member State level.
Candidates for substitution (CfS) are one of the four categories1 of active substances which was introduced in 2009 in Regulation 1107/2009 on the placing of plan protection products on the market (“PPP Regulation”)2. It regroups the EU-wide approved active substances, which due to their intrinsic hazardous properties, are identified as the most harmful of all for human health and the environment. These substances present risks in terms of acute toxicity (ARfd, AOEL, ADI23), carcinogenic or reprotoxic properties 1A or 1B pending their exclusion, endocrine disruption for humans or at least 2 PBT criteria (Persistence, Bioaccumulation and Toxicity)3.
Because their conditions of use are assumed safe, these toxic substances can be approved once for a period of 7 years. During this period, their use in pesticide products is supposed to be limited as much as possible through their substitution by safer alternatives at national level.
The adoption of this category of CfS in 2011 was the outcome of a balanced consensus that should ensure a smooth transition (7-year period), while protecting European citizens and the environment as much as possible (substitution principle at national level whenever possible). But ultimately, these more harmful pesticides, benefiting thanks to this CfS status from a temporary grace, were meant to be phased out.
2Regulation (EC) 1107/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and repealing Council Directives 79/117/EEC and 91/414/EE (L 309/1).
3An active substance can be identified as a CfS for 7 different reasons (which can be cumulative). They are listed in Annex II of the PPP Regulation 1107/2009.
