Reports

March 2022

Pesticide Free Towns: A Diversity of European Approaches

This report explores the various approaches taken by eight European member states to reduce or ban pesticide use in “sensitive” public areas and towns at large. The report underscores that phasing out pesticides in these areas is a matter of political will and that pesticidefree town maintenance is already successfully implemented by a multitude of actors and municipalities.

February 2022

Taking aim with a blindfold on

Halving the use and risk of pesticides by 2030 is one of the key measures under the European Green Deal to halt biodiversity loss and promote healthy ecosystems. But currently, no meaningful data are available to show which pesticides are used where, when, and in what quantities for food production and other purposes.

September 2021

Activity Report 2020

September 2021

Pesticides in our bedroom

Intensive agriculture being th edominant model of food production in the EU, citizens living in rural areas are regularly exposed to pesticides. Numerous epidemiological studies indicate that residing in close proximity to intensively farmed land is associated with an increased risk of cancers, miscarriages and birth malformations, cognitiveimpairment, etc. In addition, residents who live closer to pesticide-treated land have shown higher levelsof DNA damage, oxidativestress, and decreased cholinesterasea ctivity.

June 2021

EFSA : Science or ideology? EFSA’s happy genotox marriage with industry-funded ILSI

PAN Europe's latest report, published on World Food Safety Day, shows that the controversial EU food safety agency (EFSA) ignored positive cancer risk test results to clear the use of 12 unstable pesticides that are now widely used in Europe. The report demonstrates that the approvals are unreliable and the pesticides are not proven safe. The substances could help explain rising rates of breast and prostate cancer in Europe. 

April 2021

Using the CAP to turn the IPM triangle on to its solid base

With this report PAN Europe wants to show that the necessary changes to our agricultural system can be done now through an holistic uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). However, as this report shows, the spending of Member States is currently going in the wrong direction : instead of supporting an holistic approach of IPM and the transition towards non-chemical, agroecological practices that work in harmony with nature, they offer CAP subsidies to practices that are not applied in a coherent and integrated approach.

March 2021

Biomonitoring of pesticides in hair: How veterinary drugs contaminate human hair

EMA opens the gates to hazardous pesticides

Brussels, Utrecht, 30 March 2021 - Forty-seven pesticides were detected in human hair samples taken from 21 volunteers in the Netherlands. The findings of our new report [LINK] mainly concerned harmful insecticides that are banned in agriculture such as Fipronil, Permethrin and DEET, but still authorised for treatment of pets against fleas and ticks or authorised as a biocide. These veterinary chemicals and biocides are the most likely source of hair contamination. 

March 2021

Consumer Guide 2021: Endocrine Disrupting Pesticides in Your Food

Consumers are advised to avoid exposure  to endocrine disrupting pesticides (EDPs), which can be found  as pesticide residues in conventionally-grown fruit and vegetables. Due to their harmful effects on human health, the EU banned EDPs twelve years ago.  However, they are still abundantly present in food and other items sold in (super)markets. 

January 2021

Member States against EU pesticide reduction

An access to documents request carried out by PAN Europe showed that, behind closed doors, Member States are revealing their real positions on the EU Green Deal: Only one Member State is willing to engage in the 50% pesticide reduction target (as proposed by the European Commission, but measured in a completely inappropriate way).

Find out more in the report

September 2020

Banned and Hazardous Pesticides in European Food

PAN Europe carried out an investigation to find out whether pesticides banned in the EU [according to 1107/2009 and PIC legislation1] are detected in food sold on the EU market, using the EU official food pesticide residue monitoring data.

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Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) gratefully acknowledges the financial support from the European Union, European Commission, DG Environment, LIFE programme. Sole responsibility for this publication lies with the authors and the funders are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.