Feb. 27, 2008
The EU's Environment Committee voted on September 12 to take a more precautionary approach in regulating the sale of pesticides in the EU. Various environmental groups believe that the MEPs' shift of emphasis is a vast improvement on the European Commission's originally weak proposal. The key component of the new approach is a clear rejection of a three-zone solution in which countries are forced to accept existing pesticide protocols of neighbouring countries.
"This vote shows that [the European] Parliament has begun taking into account increasing scientific evidence that pesticide exposure, even at low doses, is a threat to people's health," said Monica Guarinoni, pesticides policy officer at the Health & Environment Alliance.
