The global pesticides picture: Plus ça change...
Changes in global pesticide regulations are greatly influenced by constant new product innovations - and the power of activists, scientists and media outlets to articulate concerns about pesticides’ negative health and environmental impacts. So far this year, European farmers’ protests and legislation in major pesticide-using countries like Brazil and the USA have put broadly ‘pro-pesticide’ views in the ascendancy for once – but is this a lasting change? And what do these political and regulatory developments mean for analytical laboratories that work with pesticides?
Introduction: a familiar pesticide picture
The French saying, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”, almost perfectly summarises the global state of pesticides in mid-2024 – because despite constant activity and frequent new developments, the overall picture in terms of debate, usage, research and regulation remains stubbornly familiar.
Pesticides greatly improve crop yield and feed an ever-growing human population. However, all around the world, there is a continuous flow of information about the damage that pesticides and their residues can do to people, their foods, and the environment. With companies like Corteva and BASF also driving change by introducing new, more robust products onto the market – including Tolvera and Axalion Active - regulators around the world need constantly to tweak and update the rules on how pesticides can be used. This, in turn, gives analytical laboratories an essential, three-part safeguarding role: staying up to date with non-stop industry and regulatory developments, monitoring the extent of contamination, and helping to determine that crops treated with pesticides are meeting safety limits.
Pressure on pesticides from activists and scientists
While companies are driving regulatory change, activist activity is another crucial factor. First finding its voice with the publication of Rachel Carson’s anti-pesticide exposé Silent Spring in 1962, the modern environmental movement has successfully harnessed the power of activist groups, scientific research, and influential media organisations to spread its message about the dangers of pesticides and other contaminants. A number of research studies about pesticides’ detrimental effects have been widely reported – such as a survey of 2,000 hectares of farmland in the UK, Germany and Hungary which confirmed that neonicotinoid pesticides (NNIs) “negatively affect pollinator health under realistic agricultural conditions”. Last year, a report from more than 50 researchers using a uniquely large dataset named pesticide use as a key factor behind huge reductions in bird numbers across Europe. And just five months into 2024, research has already identified widespread pesticide contamination of European alpine environments, revealed that fipronil and imidacloprid-based pet treatments are polluting UK rivers, detected high incidence of pesticide residues In Ghanaian vegetables and irrigation waters, as well as discovering traces of the restricted pesticide chlormequat in 80% of US urine samples studied.
In Europe, the campaign against NNIs has already led to prohibitions on farmers using imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam, and thiacloprid, while activists are now calling for exports of the same four NNIs to be made illegal. The US debate on whether to ban neonicotinoids has raged for several years – with an EPA registration review of five NNIs now due to conclude this year, while New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Maine, and Connecticut have already imposed their own restrictions on non-agricultural use. India has recently announced new maximum residue limits (MRLs) for pesticides used on tea plants – including mamectin benzoate, fenpyroximate, hexaconazole, and propiconazole - as well as ordering laboratories to test products for 20 banned insecticides, and instructing growers not to use any pesticide that does not have a label claim for tea. South Korea has introduced a national ‘positive’ MRL list for pesticide residues in imported foodstuffs, and has also revised its pesticide tolerance standards for agricultural products. Meanwhile, Japan is changing its own MRLs for spinosad, sulfoxaflor, pyraflufen-ethyl, and benthiavalicarb-isopropyl.
LGC Standards – quality and innovation for a safer world
For almost 50 years, LGC Standards companies have built a worldwide reputation for consistently developing quality pesticide reference materials, research chemicals, and proficiency testing schemes. Globally, we offer almost 6,000 pesticide products that help laboratories around the world keep our food and environment safe. More than half are ISO 17034-accredited - and 100% are either accredited to ISO 17034 or produced under our manufacturing sites’ ISO 17025 certifications.
Our commitment to constant innovation inspired our skilled scientists to develop the unique Smart Solutions™ v700 PestiMix Kit – the largest mix of pesticide analytes to be found anywhere on the market. Combining more than 700 analytes for liquid chromatography in only five ampoules, PestiMix not only greatly reduces the risk of error for laboratories, but additionally removes the need for complicated method development and dilution steps. We’re also proud to have originated the ISO 17034-accredited Smart Solutions™ v400 GC PestiMix Kit to enable the rapid testing of 430 analytes via gas chromatography.
Our wider pesticide portfolio also adapts constantly to reflect ever-changing regulatory demands in an increasingly globalised world – enabling us to launch around 100 new products over the last year for testing pesticides in foods, beverages and the environment, with over half of them ISO 17034-accredited. What’s more, all of our ISO 17034 RMs are supplied with omprehensive Certificates of Analysis - guaranteeing that your product is a completely known quantity and giving you supreme confidence in your results.
The full LGC Standards pesticide products range also features more than 900 research chemicals, which are ideal for studies into pesticides in food and the environment, as well as 30+ proficiency testing samples, featuring a wide range of analytes and matrices.
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Pro-pesticide pushback – but for how long?
Perhaps the standout development so far in 2024 is the European Commission’s surprise decision to scrap ‘Green Deal’ plans to halve pesticide use across the bloc by 2030, following widespread farmers’ protests against EU regulations. “Given the impact of the war in Ukraine (on cereal markets) this proposal seriously places in danger (European) independence in terms of food security,” explained Alexander Bernhuber, a European Parliament member who voted against the Green Deal. He added that cutting pesticide use might also risk a reduction in EU crop yields.
US activists, meanwhile, are concerned that the EPA’s draft Herbicide Strategy – a plan to protect 900 endangered species by ordering farmers to mitigate their use of pesticides – is also being watered down. Proposed changes to the draft strategy announced last month could result in some mitigation requirements being reduced, as well as a broader range of mitigation techniques for farmers to choose from. The concessions have been welcomed by farmers - as has the prospect of map changes that reduce the overall amount of land where pesticide restrictions would be required.
Controversial legislation that eases restrictions on pesticide use in Brazil – already the largest consumer of such chemicals in the world - has also been approved during the last six months. Originally introduced by the previous Bolsonaro administration and dubbed the ‘poison law’ by its opponents, the measure was heavily vetoed by current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. But, according to Greenpeace, Lula’s changes are “not enough to ensure that people avoid some of the law’s most harmful aspects”, which would “put more toxic agrochemicals in Brazilians’ food and pollute the environment even more".
It seems unlikely, however, that the above events point to a sustained global pushback against restrictions on pesticides. Activist groups have restated their commitment to achieving a reduction in use, including Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN), which has gathered over a million signatures on a petition demanding tougher rules. More mainstream groups, such as the European water companies’ association, EurEau, also want fewer pesticides: in EurEau’s case due to the expense of removing agricultural chemicals from their water. Moreover, even as she announced the scrapping of the Green Deal plan in February, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen stressed that “the issue of pesticide use had not gone away and that further conversations would be needed before a new proposal to reduce them can be put forward.”
Testing laboratories: ready to adapt and react
Whatever happens at the political and regulatory level, the analytical testing community will be ready to react and adapt to regulatory and scientific change. Scientists working for governments and regulatory authorities continually monitor pesticide residues in the environment, as well as foods – with recent reports from US, EU, and UK laboratories all confirming that that the vast majority of food samples tested met safety standards. However, Europe’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) has also named pesticides as its most-reported hazard for the first time in its history – adding that “notifications for imported food regarding unauthorised pesticides have soared." In 2020, RASFF also had to deal with a major food contamination scandal linked to sesame seeds from India that contained up to 200 times the permitted MRLs of the banned and potentially genotoxic pesticide ethylene oxide (EtO) – with a report last month indicating that hundreds of products contaminated with EtO are still arriving from India and elsewhere. The 2020 findings have also led to a clampdown on using EtO in food additives, as well as a widening of the range of foods that must be tested. In this volatile testing environment, testing laboratories need high-quality, reliable, and up-to-date analytical tools that help give them confidence in the integrity of their methods and results. The LGC Standards portfolio of pesticide reference materials, research chemicals, and proficiency testing samples exists precisely to meet that need, and to help provide that assurance.
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