Environmental risk of chemical agriculture - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 95

concentrations of each pesticide residue at 0.1 µ g/L and the total concentration of all

pesticides at 0.5 g/L for the most

toxic substances. The WHO threshold values for concentrations of pesticides in drink-
ing water, based on toxicological considerations, are less stringent than the maximum
concentrations allowed by EU.
Pesticide registration and distribution is governed by Regulation (EC) No
1107/2009 concerning placing of plant protection products on the market, (Pesticide
Law, 2009). This regulation aims to ensure that pesticide substances released under
authorized forms of application exert no immediate or delayed harmful effects on
human (including vulnerable groups) or animal health, directly or through drinking
water (taking into account substances resulting from water treatment), groundwa-
ter, food, feed or air, or consequences in the workplace or through other indirect
effects, taking into account known cumulative and synergistic effects where the sci-
entific methods accepted by the authority to assess such effects are available. An
additional requirement is that pesticides should not exert unacceptable load on the
environment, taking into account their environmental distribution and effects on non-
target organisms, biological diversity and the ecosystem. The accomplishment of these
aims is assured for each active ingredient by the respective approval procedure which
contains an itemized evaluation of the submitted documentation on the basis of the
currently available scientific and technical information. The registration procedure is
based on the principle of mutual recognition. This principle has been implemented by
the establishment of three zones (country groups) within the EU. Thus, it is sufficient
to execute the complete registration process for any given active ingredient in only
one Member State within the given zone (with the involvement of other member states
in the zone), while any further authorization in other member states of the zone are
executed in a simplified registration procedure.
The official acceptance of the three-zone registration system has been a process not
entirely without professional and public debates. Several systems have been established
in several forms for dividing Europe into zones on the basis of several sets of climatic,
ecological or biogeographical considerations. The most permissive one of these is the
present three-zone system, consisting of the following zones:

µ g/L. This directive sets threshold values at 0.03 µ

- Zone A (North): Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden);
- Zone B (Centre): Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Hun-
gary, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia and the
United Kingdom);
- Zone C (South): Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Malta and
Portugal).

Local ecological aspects and regional biodiversity due to both climatic and geo-
graphical factors are represented in the zonification by the Natura 2000 system
presently consisting of nine regions (Alpine, Atlantic, Black Sea, Boreal, Continental,
Macaronesian 1 , Mediterranean, Pannonian and Steppic). Similar to the three-zone sys-
tem, Natura 2000 regions are also legal entities specified under the Habitats Directive

1 Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean near Europe and North Africa: Azores, Madeira, Savage
Islands, Canary Islands and Cape Verde