Plant protection products (PPP) undergo rigorous safety assessments to achieve registration in Europe.
Non-dietary risk assessments for operators, workers, bystanders and residents are highly conservative as this area of exposure science has historically been relatively data poor. The industry group, CropLife Europe, has been engaged in collaborative activities to generate new data and pool existing data from individual companies to refine the approaches prescribed by the EFSA guidance on non-dietary exposure (2022).
This webpage summarises the key activities per exposure category such as but non exhaustive, the development of the AOEM (an integral part of the EFSA risk assessment model) as well as the projects which refine current approaches to bystander/resident and re-entry worker assessment, including the BROV project, improvements to BREAM (spray drift), proposals for refined vapour inhalation assessments, a meta-analysis of dislodgeable foliar residue (DFR) data, a study to quantify the benefits of using closed transfer systems without forgetting the achievements made on dermal absorption of dried residues.
Non-dietary exposure now features prominently on the critical pathway to registration for PPPs. The various projects presented intend to demonstrate Industry’s ongoing commitment to advancing the science that allows farmers access safe and sustainable crop protection solutions needed to maintain viable food production in Europe.