EU COURT REIMPOSES BAN ON PARAQUAT WEEDKILLER
07.13.07 - Leído 72 veces. Enviar esta notaJeremy Smith
Europe’s second highest court banned the weed killer paraquat on Wednesday, criticising the European Commission for poor health and safety assessments when it authorised the chemical in the EU in 2003
LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg; July 13, 2007.- The ruling handed down by the Court of First Instance (CFI) endorsed an appeal by Sweden, which banned paraquat in 1983 but was forced to comply with the EU approval issued 20 years later. More than 10 other EU countries had also banned it.
Paraquat, a fast-acting and acutely toxic chemical, became widely known when it was sprayed on Latin American marijuana fields in the 1970s as a defoliant.
Paraquat is marketed globally as Gramoxone by Swiss agrochemicals group Syngenta but is also available under other brand names.
Syngenta said it will work with regulatory authorities and the Commission to understand the implications of the ruling and to analyse the issues raised.
“Syngenta has comprehensive data that support the safe use of paraquat for users, consumers and the environment,” the company said in a statement.
Critics say it is impossible to handle paraquat safely and assert the chemical harms the lungs, skin and eyes of workers handling it. Paraquat producers deny these charges, saying that used properly it provides safe and effective weed control.
In its ruling, the CFI said the Commission’s authorisation for paraquat — a directive dated in December 2003 — had failed to apply proper procedures and was not properly thorough in its assessments of paraquat’s effects on human and animal health.
“The Court of First Instance annuls the directive authorising paraquat as an active plant protection substance,” it said in a statement.
“The Commission’s handling of the file does not satisfy the applicable procedural requirements and the directive fails to satisfy the requirement of protection of human and animal health,” the statement added.
(Additional reporting by Peter Maushagen in Zurich)
(Reuters)
Enlaces Relacionados
