The crop protection industry´s view on the regulatory situation for SPP chemical

Autor/innen

  • Regina C. Fischer

Abstract

The regulatory situation regarding products for the protection of stored products in the EU has become increasingly complex in recent years. Since 1991, products for the control of the major storage pests – insects and rodents – were regulated by the Plant Protection Directive 91/414/EEC, one of the world´s most stringent legislations for pesticides. In the course of the EU review program for existing active substances, the number of available plant protection active substances was reduced from around 1000 in 1993 to about 250 to date. Many SPP pesticides were lost in this process already.
A second challenge for industry came with the Biocidal Products Directive 98/8/EC (BPD) in March 1998. Due to insufficient clarification of borderlines and lack of harmonisation, many products are now under the scope of both directives. Additional bureaucratic hurdles are now raised by the new European chemicals legislation REACH, requiring registration for all chemicals, including coformulants.
For many companies, especially SMEs, the costs of several million € for studies, dossier compilation and authorisation fees are not viable for the relatively small storage protection product segment.
For the remaining products, use restrictions due to the high importance of human and environmental safety are increasing, resulting in less availability of products for amateur use. At the same time, the political climate tends against the use of chemicals in general.
Awareness must urgently be raised, both on the political public level, as to the necessity and benefits of chemical storage protection.

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Veröffentlicht

2010-10-27