Herbicides

Pour le Commissariat général au Développement durable, la contamination par les pesticides est « quasi généralisée ». Dans 35 % des cas, l’eau est même jugée « impropre à la consommation humaine ». La contamination par les pesticides des cours d’eau en France est « quasi généralisée », les grandes régions agricoles ou viticoles du bassin parisien, du nord et du sud-ouest étant les plus touchées, indique le Commissariat général au Développement durable. « La contamination des cours d’eau est quasi-généralisée en France, essentiellement par les herbicides en métropole et des insecticides en Outre-mer », écrit le Commissariat dans une note « indicateurs et indices » datée du 22 juillet et consultable sur le site du ministère de l’Ecologie. Les zones les plus touchées sont les grandes régions céréalières, maraîchères ou viticoles que sont le nord de la France, le Bassin parisien, le Sud-Ouest, l’amont du Rhône et la Martinique. « Seuls 7% des points en sont exempts. Ils sont majoritairement situés dans des régions peu agricoles ou à agriculture peu intensives », soit le quart sud-est de la France et l’Auvergne, écrit le Commissariat.

The approval process for GM crops has ground to a halt in Europe despite a clear regulatory path. Crops must first be deemed safe by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma, Italy. The European Commission must then produce a draft decision within three months, to be voted on by representatives from EU member states before approval can be finalized. The EFSA has deemed eight crops as safe, some as long ago as 2005. But political disquiet over the cultivation of GM crops, including bans in some EU countries, has meant that the commission has not moved forward on any of them. Four crops in limbo — three varieties of maize (corn) and one of soya bean — are Monsanto products. The company, which is based in St Louis, Missouri, also has five GM crops still under review by the EFSA: four maize varieties and one sugar-beet variety. Monsanto says that it will abandon applications for all of them except for one GM maize, MON810. This is already grown in the EU, but is now up for its ten-year re­approval review. That reapproval has already been passed to the commission by the EFSA. Monsanto will now focus its European efforts on its conventional agriculture business and on enabling the import of GM crops for use as animal feed, a widespread EU practice that is less controversial than cultivating the crops in European fields.

In the early years, the St. Louis biotech giant helped pioneer such leading chemicals as DDT, PCBs, and Agent Orange. Unfortunately, these breakthroughs had a tendency to kill stuff. And the torrent of lawsuits that comes from random killing put a crimp on long-term profitability. So Monsanto hatched a less lethal, more lucrative plan. The company would attempt to take control of the world's food supply. It began in the mid-'90s, when Monsanto developed genetically modified (GM) crops such as soybeans, alfalfa, sugar beets, and wheat. These Franken-crops were immune to its leading weed killer, Roundup. That meant that farmers no longer had to till the land to kill weeds, as they'd done for hundreds of years. They could simply blast their entire fields with chemicals, leaving GM crops the only thing standing. Problem solved. The so-called no-till revolution promised greater yields, better profits for the family farm, and a heightened ability to feed a growing world. But there was one small problem: Agriculture had placed a belligerent strongman in charge of the buffet line.

First genetically engineered plants were created 30 years ago. Commercial growing in the USA began almost 20 years ago. Initially, although US farmers had a number of advantages from cultivating herbicide-resistant crops (savings in working time, spraying lesser amounts of herbicide to kill weeds) this is now mostly reversed. The weeds have adapted to the cultivation of the genetically engineered plants so that farmers are experiencing a substantial increase in both working hours and the amounts of herbicide they require. Even the pest insects targeted by the cultivation of insecticide-producing plants have partially adapted. Secondary pests have now spread throughout maize cultivations and we have a scenario where plants have been genetically engineered to produce up to six different toxins. Agricultural technologies are drawing farmers into a production systemisation that will force agriculture towards more industrialisation and massively increase costs for seeds, without there being a substantial increase in yields or significant savings in the amounts of spray required.

An export from US EPA OPP Ecological Toxicity database (distinct from EcoTox, and based on data submitted by registrants) with LD50 values for all registered pesticides (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc.) for which there are data (attached). This database hasn't been updated by the IPM Centers (who host it) since 2011, so the new ones are missing, but you can get a feel for the numbers of pesticides that fall in the category of highly acutely toxic.

In een onlinebevraging van Natuurpunt hebben 1314 Vlamingen hun mening gegeven over het beleid rond waterkwaliteit in Vlaanderen. Op de vraag of de overheid genoeg maatregelen treft om de waterkwaliteit van de waterlopen te verbeteren, antwoordde 60% van de respondenten negatief. Hoewel 70% van de deelnemers de laatste jaren een vooruitgang heeft opgemerkt, is 60% nog altijd ontevreden over de staat van onze beken, rivieren, kanalen en meren. Maar liefst 94% vindt dat er nog werk aan de winkel is. Meer dan drie kwart van die groep maakt zich zorgen over mest en pesticiden die via de landbouw in het water terechtkomen. Een tweede belangrijk probleem is volgens hen de beperkte biodiversiteit in de waterlopen, gevolgd door de vervuiling door industrieel en huishoudelijk afvalwater. Opvallend is ook dat 92% van de respondenten meer mogelijkheden wil om in Vlaanderen in schoon en natuurlijk water te zwemmen. Hoewel dat op de meeste plaatsen verboden is, blijkt vooral het vuile water potentiële zwemmers af te schrikken.

Die EFSA hat Leitlinien für die Bewertung potenzieller Risiken für Honigbienen, Hummeln und Solitärbienen durch den Einsatz von Pestiziden veröffentlicht. Im bisherigen EU-Risikobewertungsmodell für Honigbienen wurden die Risiken einer chronischen oder wiederholten Exposition gegenüber Pestiziden bzw. das potenzielle Risiko für Larven nicht vollständig berücksichtigt. Die neuen Leitlinien schließen diese Lücken und enthalten darüber hinaus auch Modelle für Hummeln und Solitärbienen. Außerdem wird eine neue Methode zur Bewertung der Annehmbarkeit des potenziellen Schadens vorgeschlagen, dem Bienen durch den Einsatz von Pflanzenschutzmitteln ausgesetzt sind. Die im Leitliniendokument der EFSA enthaltenen aktuellen Empfehlungen richten sich an alle, die an der Bewertung von Pestiziden beteiligt sind, einschließlich Industrie und Behörden.

Previous research has suggested positive associations between parental or childhood exposure to pesticides and risk of childhood brain tumors (CBT). This Australian case–control study of CBT investigated whether exposures to pesticides before pregnancy, during pregnancy and during childhood, were associated with an increased risk. Cases were recruited from 10 pediatric oncology centers, and controls by random-digit dialing, frequency matched on age, sex, and State of residence. Exposure data were collected by written questionnaires and telephone interviews. Data were analyzed by unconditional logistic regression. The odds ratios (ORs) for professional pest control treatments in the home in the year before the index pregnancy, during the pregnancy, and after the child’s birth were 1.54 (95 % confidence interval (CI): 1.07, 2.22), 1.52 (95 % CI: 0.99, 2.34) and 1.04 (95 % CI: 0.75, 1.43), respectively. ORs for treatments exclusively before pregnancy and during pregnancy were 1.90 (95 % CI: 1.08, 3.36) and 1.02 (95 % CI: 0.35, 3.00), respectively. The OR for the father being home during the treatment was 1.79 (95 % CI: 0.85, 3.80). The OR for paternal occupational exposure in the year before the child’s conception was 1.36 (95 % CI: 0.66, 2.80). ORs for prenatal home pesticide exposure were elevated for low- and high-grade gliomas; effect estimates for other CBT subtypes varied and lacked precision. These results suggest that preconception pesticide exposure, and possibly exposure during pregnancy, is associated with an increased CBT risk. It may be advisable for both parents to avoid pesticide exposure during this time.

Dose- and term-dependent differences in the location and nature of brain lesions induced in rats and dogs by 2,5-hexanedione (2,5-HD), misonidazole, clioquinol, and acrylamide are reported. Subchronic neuropathies ("distal axonopathy") were induced by low-dose administration of these neurotoxicants and at high doses, lesions caused by acute or subacute neurotoxicity were found in the central nervous system (CNS). In rats, 2,5-HD induced extracellular edema, nerve cell degeneration, and axonal degeneration in the cerebellar and vestibular nuclei. Similar lesions were observed in misonidazole-treated dogs and clioquinol induced nerve cell degeneration in the hippocampus and malacia in the piriform lobes of these animals. In rats, acrylamide induced degeneration of Purkinje cells. Although the mechanism(s) underlying the differential neurotoxicity of high and low doses of these neurotoxicants remains unclear, we suggest certain biochemical mechanisms, cytotoxic edema and excitotoxicity, as factors in the production of such lesions after high-dose treatment.

De vaste commissie voor Economische Zaken en de vaste commissie voor Infrastructuur en Milieu hebben op 1 juli 2013 overleg gevoerd met staatssecretaris Dijksma van Economische Zaken en staatssecretaris Mansveld van Infrastructuur en Milieu over:
- de brief van de staatssecretaris van Economische Zaken d.d. 14 mei 2013 houdende de Aanbieding van de Nota "Gezonde Groei, Duurzame Oogst"(27858, nr. 146);
- de brief van de staatssecretaris van Economische Zaken d.d. 5 december 2012 inzake Verbetering naleefbaarheid en handhaafbaarheid gewasbeschermingsmiddelengebruik (27858, nr. 137);
- de brief van de staatssecretaris van Economische zaken houdende de Aanbieding Integriteitscode van het College voor de toelating van gewasbeschermingsmiddelen en biociden (Ctgb) (27858, nr. 139);
- de brief van de staatssecretaris van Economische Zaken d.d. 12 februari 2013 inzake de Voortgang van de verbetertrajecten bij het Ctgb (27858, nr. 142)
- de brief van de staatssecretaris van Infrastructuur en Milieu d.d. 18 juni 2013 inzake het Onderzoeksrapport van Pesticide Action Network (Pan Europe) (27858, nr. 160).
Van dit overleg brengt de commissie bijgaand geredigeerd woordelijk verslag uit.