European agency restricts herbicide of agro giant
sexta-feira, fevereiro 17, 2023
Several applications of the herbicide S-metholachlor, which is one of the most used in the European country, and is produced by Syngenta are suspended in France. France's National Food Safety, Environment and Occupational Health Agency (ANSES) ordered the restrictions on Wednesday, February 16, after detecting excessive levels of the active ingredient in groundwater.
According to ANSES, S-metholachlor residues have been detected at concentrations above the maximum safety and quality limits set by European legislation. In addition, the French regulator justified its decision by mentioning in the opinion the aggravating factor of this herbicide having been classified as "suspected of causing cancer" by the European Chemicals Agency's Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) in June 2022.
"Faced with this risk to the quality of water resources, ANSES initiates a procedure to withdraw the authorization of the main uses of phytosanitary products containing the active substance S-metolachlor. In this way, environmental contamination by this substance will be reduced and this will help to gradually restore the quality of groundwater," france's National Food Safety, Environment and Occupational Health Agency said in a statement.
On the other hand, the French regulator has not yet specified what would be the "main uses" that are currently prohibited. S-metholachlor is a molecule mainly used in agricultural pesticide formulations to control invasive plants in corn, sunflower, soybean and beet crops.
Syngenta, a multinational agrochemical of Swiss origin and now controlled by China, had previously disagreed with the RAC classification, saying it was "more appropriate not to classify S-metolachlor as a toxic to development." The herbicide is currently under going on reassessment in Europe, and the findings of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) are expected later this year.
Source: Agrolink
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