Toxic pesticides face EU ban over health and environmental fears

PESTICIDES with highly toxic chemicals that can cause cancer and other ailments are to be banned in the EU over the next few years in response to fears they damage human health and the environment.

The farming community says it will severely reduce crop yields, but health and environmental experts believe the new rules do not go far enough.

In all, 22 chemicals out of over 400 are being banned because they can cause cancer, affect the hormone, nervous and reproductive systems and foetuses, as well as damage the environment.

Pesticides generally may not be used near drinking water supplies, while they must be minimised or banned in public areas such as parks, schools, sports and playgrounds and near hospitals.

Aerial crop spraying will also be banned unless approved by the authorities but there must be no spraying close to residential areas.

Pesticides that have been blamed for seriously damaging the bee population, affecting pollination of plants, will also be outlawed after MEPs voted in favour of the legislation.

The new rules are due to be phased in over the next few years and governments must draw up national plans to reduce the risk to human health and the environment and promote non-chemical pest control.

More than 200,000 tons of pesticides are used annually to kill or control insects, birds and animals from damaging crops in the EU.

About 5% of European food tested showed up five or more pesticide residues in vegetables and fruit.

Greenpeace and other environmental groups say the new rules do not go far enough considering pesticide exposure is linked to asthma, cancer, Parkinson’s disease and other problems.

They say there are at least 100 highly toxic pesticides that are not being phased out, but they welcome that no new pesticides containing toxic chemicals will be allowed onto the market.

The legislation has been contentious and took more than two year to pass.

Germany, with its huge chemical industry, strongly objected. Ireland, Britain and Romania also voiced objections, with the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith abstaining from the final vote last June.

Industry and farming groups argued it would increase the cost of food, as many of the crops would be spoiled if they were unable to be protected from pests. They argued that yields of crops such as potatoes could be cut by up to 25%.

Ireland East MEP Mairead McGuinness said the industry must now respond by producing safer, alternative plant protection products.

“There are concerns about the implications for cereal and potato growing in Ireland and certainly, if there was an immediate ban on certain substances, this concern would be justified.

“However, given that the industry now has some clarity about the substances of concern, it has the time to respond and produce alternatives,” she said.

But she criticised the fact that food imported into the EU would not be subject to the same limits.

Some retailers are going further than the legislation and the German supermarket chain, EDEKA announced its own pesticides blacklist last week, telling farmers they must not use them on food they sell.