EFSA’s pilot studies on Cumulative Risk Assessment – A source of concern

Brussels, 30/04/2020

Fifteen years have passed since EU law (EC 396/2005) called to evaluate the impact of pesticide mixtures on human health. To our disappointment EFSA’s pilot studies presented yesterday seem unfit for purpose to ensure that pesticides mixtures cause no impact to human health and particularly to the most vulnerable groups in our population.

The EFSA studies examine the risk of dietary exposure to pesticides mixtures for acute effects on the nervous system and chronic effects on the thyroid, and they’re completely hypothetical: no experimental studies using pesticide mixtures have taken place at any step of the assessment.

They conclude that “consumer risk from dietary cumulative exposure” is - with varying degrees of certainty - “below the threshold that triggers regulatory action”

When examined in detail they raise major concerns on their adequacy to objectively and independently assess the toxicity of mixtures.

During the public consultation last November, PAN Europe had raised major concerns about the process being “based on -unfit for purpose- experimental studies and numerous far-fetched assumptions” leading to an “underestimation of the potential harm that pesticides may cause”.

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