The government announced on Tuesday to rely on the National Health Security Agency (Anses) to determine the distances for spraying pesticides.

"With regard to the safety distances for products classified as CMR2 (carcinogenic, mutagenic or suspected toxic)", the government "asked ANSES to speed up the updating of authorizations to scientifically assess and integrate these distances into the marketing authorizations, ”the Ministries of Ecological Transition and Agriculture said in a joint press release.

ANSES "will therefore have to explicitly set a non-treatment distance for the products concerned (classified CMR2) which so request", the government decided in response to a request from the Council of State.

Identify possible "losses of agricultural production"

To take into account "the irreducible evaluation deadlines, a transitional phase is planned" and, "from 1 October 2022, products that have not been the subject of an admissible request to ANSES are intended to have a distance of ten meters applied by regulation ”.

The government specifies that an inventory will be carried out at the end of this transitional phase to identify possible “losses of agricultural production” and to consider compensation for farmers.

In December 2019, the government had set the minimum distances to be observed between the areas where phytosanitary products were spread and homes: five meters for so-called low crops such as vegetables and cereals, and ten meters for tall crops, fruit trees or vines.

But the decree also provided for exemptions reducing these distances to three meters for low crops and five meters for high ones, within the framework of "departmental commitment charters" proposed by pesticide users and validated by the prefects, after having been subject to public consultation.

The government seek to "please the FNSEA"

In July, the Council of State asked the government to review its copy.

To meet the demand, the government proposed two texts on Tuesday, submitted for public consultation before their publication at the end of January: a draft decree inviting the signatories of the charters to provide prior information to local residents, encouraging "each territory to choose the most suitable solution. more suitable ”;

and a draft decree including, in addition to local residents, “places welcoming workers” near the treatment areas.

Our dossier on pesticides

The environmental defense associations which attacked the texts, including Générations Futures, immediately expressed their "anger".

"The government is giving in to pressure from farmers and ignoring decisions of the Council of State aimed at better protecting local residents," they said in a statement.

They deplore in particular that the executive did not choose to preventively extend the distance for spraying pesticides to ten meters pending the ANSES assessment, which will only take place after the election. presidential, and accuse the government of seeking "to instrumentalize" the health agency, "to please the FNSEA".

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