The High Jurisdiction enjoins the Government to set larger safety distances between residential areas and the spreading of phytosanitary products among the most problematic.
by Stéphane Foucart
The Council of State reappears, once again, the government on the issue of pesticides. The High Jurisdiction rendered, Thursday, December 22, a decision which enjoined the government to set greater safety distances between places of residential and the spreading of phytosanitary products among the most problematic.
State advisers thus test the virtues of repetition: They had already rendered, on July 26, 2021, a decision partially canceling the decree of December 27, 2019 relating to the protection of people during the use of pesticides, on the grounds, in particular, that the latter provided “insufficient safety distances for products classified as suspected of being carcinogenous , mutagens or toxic to reproduction “, or cmr2.
Considering that, six months later, the government had not taken note of this decision, several associations – future generations, France Nature Environnement, UFC -Que Choisir, alert of doctors on pesticides, etc. – again seized the high jurisdiction. Which, after a cycle of seventeen months, is forced to repeat itself. It highlighted the “severity of the consequences of the partial lack of execution in terms of public health” and “the particular emergency which results from it”, fixing two months to the government to react, under penalty of a penalty of 500 euros per day of delay. Contacted Friday, December 23, the ministries of agriculture and the ecological transition did not respond to our requests.
strong national controversy
The applicant associations want the safety distances to be fixed at more than ten meters, regardless of their category of danger, whether it is proven or possible (CMR1) or suspected (CMR2). Today, only CMR1s are accompanied by a safety distance of twenty meters, against five or ten meters for other products, depending on cultures and/or spray equipment.
“This is a new victory, which illustrates the fact that the government is constantly playing the watch against the health of the populations exposed to these substances,” said the world Nadine Lauverjat, campaign manager with future generations. The government is awaiting an assessment of the National Food, Environment and Labor Safety Agency (ANSES), in order to fix, if necessary, new safety distances, for 300 products Classified CMR2 and whose marketing authorization does not explicitly provide specific distances of use near residents.
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