Pesticides can kill undesired fungi, insects and weeds, and thereby help garden owners and farmers. However, some pesticides can have harmful effects on human health and the environment. The Danish EPA therefore approves the pesticides that may be used in Denmark and works to minimise the use of pesticides as much as possible.
Wood protection agents, rat poison, antifouling paint for ships, and agents to prevent algae are examples of products containing pesticides which many people have used in the fight against bacteria, fungi or algae. The advantage of pesticides is that they have been designed to combat undesired living organisms, however some of the agents have unacceptable effects on human health and the environment. Agents must be approved before use The Danish EPA is responsible for chemical and microbiological pesticides. Approval schemes for pesticides and biocides in Danish chemicals legislation ensure that pesticides and biocides are not sold or used in Denmark before the Danish EPA has assessed their significance for human health and the environment. If an agent is to be approved, three important conditions must be met: it must be effective relative to its purpose, it must not be harmful to human health or the environment, and, finally, applicants, typically enterprises, are responsible for providing the Danish EPA with the necessary information.
Pivotal EU lists The Danish approval schemes are anchored in EU legislation: the Biocide Directive and the Plant Protection Products Directive, which contain similar regulations. Both use the principle of a positive list, which means that all active substances must first be assessed on a common basis in the EU. Only if the substances can be approved in the EU, may they be included in the agents approved by the Member States. Agents containing active substances that are not on the EU's positive lists may not be sold in the EU market. A large proportion of the approval work on pesticides therefore takes place in the EU, where Member States negotiate and vote regularly on individual active substances. The Danish EPA is responsible for Denmark's ongoing work on the directives in the EU.
Pesticide consumption must come down The Danish EPA is also working to reduce the use of approved pesticides, as is evident from the government’s "Pesticides Action Plan 2004-2009". The objective is to reduce treatment frequency. The Danish EPA monitors developments in treatment frequency closely and each year publishes an overview of annual sales of pesticides subject to approval.
In spring 2007, the Minister for the Environment, Local Government Denmark (LGDK) and Danish Regions renewed a successful agreement from 1998 on phasing out the use of plant protection agents on public areas. Finally, the Danish EPA has prepared extensive material on how to nurture and cultivate your garden without the use of pesticides, available e.g. via the website www.groenhave.dk .
Gene technology The Danish EPA is responsible for processing applications for permission to use genetically modified organisms (GMOs), which have to be approved according to the Environment and Gene Technology Act with regard to:
• Production in confined conditions, e.g. genetically modified bacteria to manufacture enzymes for use in the manufacture of washing agents and food. • Test releases, i.e. all experiments and trials under which genetically modified plants and other organisms are released in the open countryside. The Minister for the Environment can only approve test releases on the basis of an environmental and health assessment as well as consultations with a large number of parties. • Marketing, typically applications for approval of non-food products, for example genetically modified flowers or aquarium fish.
The Danish EPA also supervises compliance with the terms of approvals. Therefore the Danish EPA has supervisory responsibility for:
• General provisions of the Environment and Gene Technology Act. • Requirements and terms for approval under the Act. • Compliance with notices and bans under the Act. • Laboratories and laboratory areas in which there is work with genetically modified plants and animals with regard to aspects relating to the external environment.
The Danish EPA is also responsible for the Cartagena Protocol, the purpose of which is to ensure appropriate levels of protection in connection with cross-border transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms (LMOs), i.e. organisms created using modern biotechnology, which in principle correspond to living genetically modified organisms (GMOs).