In an article published on December 13, 2017, the non-governmental organization (NGO) Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) reported that, on the same day, representatives from EU Member States in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SC-PAFF) voted in support of the European Commission’s (EC) revised proposal for criteria to identify endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the field of pesticides. The SC-PAFF convened on December 12-13, 2017 to discuss the new draft regulation (FPF reported) after the EC’s previous proposal for pesticide EDC criteria was rejected by the European Parliament on October 4, 2017 (FPF reported).
HEAL informed that the new criteria “partly took into account the European Parliament’s demand” for improvement by removing an exemption for substances designed to have an endocrine mode of action, even if they harm non-target organisms. HEAL deemed this “only one step in the right direction” and highlighted the remaining “very high burden of proof required in the criteria.”
Also NGO Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe called the new criteria “still unfit for regulation as they require an unprecedented high level of evidence to identify pesticides as endocrine disruptors, which does not reflect today’s scientific knowledge on endocrine disruptors.”
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HEAL (December 13, 2017). “EU Member States adopt revised EDC proposal – A step in the right direction, but not enough.”
PAN Europe (December 13, 2017). “An unsettling compromise: Member States support Commission’s unfit proposal on hormone disruptors.”
Chemical Watch (December 13, 2017). “EU pesticides committee adopts revised EDC criteria.”
EurActiv (December 14, 2017). “Member states give green light to Commission’s plan on endocrine disruptors.”
DG SANTE (December 18, 2017). “Extract of the summary report of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed held in Brussels on 12 December 2017 – 13 December 2017.” (pdf)
