Monitoring the Impact of Plant Protection Products

Inappropriate use of plant protection products or accidents involving them can have potentially wide-ranging adverse impacts. Arrangements have been put in place to carefully monitor the way products are applied and effects which they have. These arrangements also help us to ensure that they are behaving are predicted by the risk assessment process.

The reasons for use, amount applied, practice of users and impact these chemicals have are summarised in an annual report of the Pesticides Forum.

A range of information is used to assess the impact of plant protection product use. HSE is responsible for operating some of these controls. In particular:

• Monitoring pesticide usage;
• Participating in an EU programme to set Maximum Residue Levels in food and drink and supporting the Pesticide Residues in Food Expert Committee which oversee a surveillance programme assessing compliance with these standards and the implications of any findings; and
• The Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme which looks at reported cases of products harming, or putting, pests, livestock and wild animals at risk.

Further Information

• Maximum Residue Levels
• Pesticide Residues in Food Expert Committee
• Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme
• Pesticides Forum Annual Reports
• Pesticide Usage Survey Programme (external)
• The Statistics Regulation
• Eurostat pesticides sales data

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