Actions from the EU continue restriction of use pesticide in agriculture as a precaution to protect both bees and other pollinators and human health..
European Union countries approved the Commission’s proposal. Limit the presence of neonicotinoid pesticides in foods to the minimum, up to the minimum threshold detectable by science. bee protection in EU. These Given their pollinating role, insects are critical to sustaining the global food industry, but they are still in sharp decline.
“This is the first time we have lowered the maximum residue limit for pesticides to account for the impact that active substances in the environment can have at a global level,” said Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.
Specifically, the European Food Safety Agency has determined: two of the ingredients found in these pesticides, clothianidin and thiamethoxposes a high risk to pollinators and in fact, outdoor use was already banned in the EU in 2018.
Now, the new norm will reduce the maximum limit at which both substances can be found in both food and feed; Europa Press reports that the limit in question will actually be the lowest level that the technology can measure.
The new regulations will be submitted to the Council of Europe and The European Parliament has two months to decide. and if no institution objects, the regulation will be adopted in early 2023.
“Today, we are taking another step forward by contributing to the transition to sustainable food systems at a global level,” the Health Commissioner said in a statement.
East maximum residue limit will apply Food produced in the European Unionproducts that already have a very low threshold and need to adapt to new regulations and market products without these two neocotinoids, as well as those imported from third countries.
34% of Spanish food contains pesticides
According to a recent international scientific study, almost half of the food products consumed in the European Union (EU) contain pesticide residues. In Spain, the percentage is lower, 34%, but the problem is no less serious for this, because One third of pesticides detected are not licensed.
Ecologists in Action, ‘Directly to your hormones. The destructive foods guide points out that the solution to this serious problem is the Spanish Administration’s compliance with regulations and halving the use of such substances, which can have both acute and chronic effects on human health.
pesticides one of the leading causes of death from voluntary poisoningAccording to the World Health Organization (WHO), especially in low- and middle-income countries.
More than 1000 pesticides are used in the world to prevent pests, each with different properties and toxicological effects, from spoiling or destroying food. Some can stay in soil and water for years.
Although soil health is the focus of international pesticide work, the researchers concluded that can enter the food chain and thus affects food quality and human health.
They note that EU food crops, unlike soils, are extensively checked for pesticide residues each year. Despite this, however, according to the latest report of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published in 2020, 48% of 91,015 food products tested in the EU contain pesticide residues.
Organic foods less
According to scientific research from the University of Córdoba, organically produced food “seems to lead to a lower pesticide load than conventionally produced food: 13.8% vs 46% 1.4% of samples contained pesticide residues and 1.4% and 4.8% of samples had measurements exceeding recommended maximum residue limits (MRLs), respectively.”
However, as the study shows, the dietary risks of pesticides in food may be greater, as 29% of food samples analyzed have multiple residues, with a maximum of 29 different residues per sample. Contaminants found in foods include DDT.
For all these reasons, the researchers advise: “MRLs (recommended maximum limits) should be determined quickly for mixtures of pesticide residues in food and correlated with the total MRLs for the sum of all residues and the total number of residues. They add: “These MRLs should be significantly lower for organically produced foods compared to conventionally produced foods.”
The results of this scientific study, which analyzed the presence of pesticides in Europe, are similar to those found in the ecologists in action report. Spain, a country that is the continental leader in pesticide sales“Some of the pesticides used remain in food as invisible residues and end up in the mouths of consumers,” warns ecologists in the Action, with a total of 75,190 tons in 2019. To ensure that these residues do not exceed the maximum safety limits, the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) carries out annual checks on a range of food samples.
This organization’s most recent analysis of food samples from 2019, on which the Ecologists in Action report is based, shows that 98.3% of these samples comply with regulations because, despite having traces of pesticides, they fall below established standards. boundary.
44% of fruits and vegetables contain more than one pesticide
Analyzes also reveal large amounts of pesticides in food for sale in Spain. Specifically, 34% of all samples analyzed contained one or more pesticides. While this rate increased to 44.4% in fruits and vegetables, up to nine different pesticides were detected in some samples. Strawberry was the food with the most pesticide residues37, 25 of which are endocrine disruptors.
The report pays special attention to contamination with pesticides that affect the hormonal system, known as endocrine disruptors, because any amount of these substances can be harmful to health, similar to carcinogens.
According to Ecologists in Action, The maximum residue limits used by AESAN do not provide protection. Take precautions against these pesticides and consider that “the only protection is to prohibit their use”. In addition, the combined effect of the cocktail of different substances exposes the population to “an unknown danger that is impossible to assess according to the scientific community.”
Pesticides not allowed in Spain
The report also condemns Spain’s continued use of “a large number of pesticides not permitted by European legislation”. especially, 31% of waste It has been determined that it belongs to unauthorized pesticides.
But the actual percentage is even higher, according to Ecologists in Action, because AESAN excludes “the most commonly used pesticides in the field” from analysis. An example is 1,3-dichloropropene, which was not analyzed in the samples, “despite being the third most used pesticide Carcinogenic in 2019 and by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer).
Ecologists in Action states that instead of improving their analysis, AESAN has worsened the quality of its controls, “reducing both the number of pesticides it analyzes and the number of samples it takes, placing Spain at the bottom of all of Europe.” Number of samples per 100,000 people.
“The solution to this pollution is in the hands of the Administration. Spain, which must comply with European regulations (such as the “farm to fork” strategy and the Sustainable Pesticide Use Directive) and reduce the use and risk of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030. To do this, the Administration must be brave. and we are in favor of a transition to agriculture that uses less toxic substances and is more respectful to health and the environment.”
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