The Council of State examined Monday the requests in summary procedure of the collective of the anti-pesticides mayors and of NGOs which claim the suspension of the texts fixing the minimum distances of spreading of the pesticides, which they consider insufficient to protect the populations.
In a decree and a decree published on December 27 after several months of controversy, the government decided and confirmed the distances put in public consultation in the fall: five meters for so-called low crops like vegetables and cereals and ten meters for tall crops, fruit trees or vines.
"It's not about agribashing"
Distance increased to 20 meters for the “most dangerous” products, which represent around 0.3% of the active substances used. “There is a complete lack of protection. There are children playing alongside these sprays, ”said Corinne Lepage at the hearing, on behalf of the collective of anti-pesticide mayors and NGOs Agir pour l'Environnement and Criigen.
"It is not a question of agribashing but of saying that the right to poisoning is not recognized by the French Constitution," added the former Minister of the Environment.
The representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, insisting that the government had followed the recommendations of the health agency Anses, on the contrary assured that the new texts provided "additional elements of protection" compared to the current situation.
"This decree is an insult to the intelligence"
Until then, specific protection rules applied to places hosting vulnerable people such as crèches or retirement homes. But in a decision of June 2019, the Council of State had rightly estimated that the decree of 2017 regulating the use of pesticides did not sufficiently protect the health of local residents or the environment. He had therefore given the government six months to take further measures, a decision which had led to the establishment of these minimum spreading distances.
"This decree is an insult to the intelligence, it does nothing to protect the populations contrary to what the Council of State had demanded," said Monday AFP Daniel Cueff, president of the collective of anti-pesticide mayors who has about 120 city councilors.
"We can't get the hang of the Chernobyl cloud and say that this cloud of pesticides would only stay at the height of the field," added the emblematic mayor of Langouët (Ile-et-Vilaine) who had issued a decree in May prohibiting the use of plant protection products within 150 meters of homes. Order canceled since by the administrative justice.
The interim decision of the Council of State is due by Friday. Other organizations including Générations Futures and UFC-Que Choisir must file in the coming weeks an appeal to the bottom against the spreading distances.
Planet
Maine-et-Loire: New cases of poisoning after spreading, the use of a suspended product
- ecology
- pesticides
- Agriculture
- Planet