Latin American Association For Plant Pathology

Latin American Association For Plant Pathology (LAALRUTA) oppose the European Commission's (EC) proposal drafted criteria for endocrine disrupting substances in plant protection products. Taking into account the Commission prepared an impact assessment of plant protection products, it will impact on farmers both necessary and safe plant protection products available. Plant protection products reduction will mean less available solutions for crop pest and disease control, which in turn will lead to lower crop yields, crop possible degradation of the quality (mycotoxins, etc.). We, representatives of the industry, like the rest of society, it is important to maintain a high level of human and animal health and environmental protection standards. Therefore, we agree that the use of substances that really causes damage to human health, should be banned in Europe. For such substances can be identified, the criteria for classifying substances as endocrine active substances should be based on scientific evidence and risk assessment. This means that the assessment of substances should take into account not only the properties of substances, but also the risk assessment of the actual use and exposure conditions. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Scientific Committee has recognized that the risk assessment allows an optimal use of the best available data and is used to determine the substances which have endocrine disrupting properties. They should be dealt with like all other substances which cause concern for human health and the environment. This means that the substance evaluation should be based not only on the hazard assessment, but also a risk assessment evaluating the real use and exposure conditions.