Dear Commissioner Kyriakides,
PAN Europe writes to you to express its concerns regarding the European Commission’s handling of pesticide substances known to be harmful to reproduction (known/presumed to damage the unborn child and/or fertility, i.e. toxic for reproduction category 1A/B) 1 . These substances are unequivocally hazardous to health and shall not be approved for use in pesticides according to Regulation 1107/2009 (‘Pesticide Regulation’)2 aiming to protect humans and animal health, as well as the environment from exposure to harmful pesticides. Despite the obligations set out in the Pesticide Regulation, your services at the Directorate–General for Health and Food Safety (‘DG SANTE’) continue to allow residues of these substances in imported food after they have been banned in the EU. Furthermore, we observed that some of such substances remain approved and are used in EU food production even after they have been officially classified as reprotoxic1 . With this letter we are asking you to put an end to these practices and ensure that all reprotoxic substances are swiftly banned, in line with EU law, and no residues are permitted in food.
