"BASF hears consumer questions but wants to be reassuring about the health risk", given a "reassuring assessment" carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2007, Jean told AFP. -Marc Petat, the group's sustainable agriculture and communication director in France.

"In parallel with this assessment", "we follow the life cycle of our active substances very closely, in conjunction with the authorities, with a team of dedicated experts, particularly in the field", he added.

Chloridazone is a herbicide used for beet weed control until 2020, which BASF discovered in 1960. The molecule fell into the public domain "in the 2000s" and has since "been produced by many generic companies in addition to BASF,” Petat said.

The Hauts-de-France Regional Health Agency announced on September 15 that it had placed 45 municipalities in the region – 13,500 inhabitants – under reinforced surveillance, including levels of chloridazone metabolites (a residual by-product of chloridazone) in drinking water are particularly high.

Tap water will be analyzed “every 15 days until the end of September”.

Depending on the results, the ARS could recommend to the prefectures "restrictions on the consumption of tap water", she said.

Sixty other municipalities, at slightly lower rates, will be placed under enhanced surveillance in the fall.

For the ARS, these controls respond to a "precautionary principle".

"In France, we are extremely cautious. This is the first time that we have taken so many measures for a metabolite that we do not know," insisted Thomas Campeaux, the prefect of Aisne, the department mainly affected.

The National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) has been instructed to set a maximum concentration value for chloridazone metabolites, to replace the 3μg/L set on a transitional basis by the government. .

The product has not been registered since December 31, 2019 but stocks could still be sold until May 2020, explained Mr. Petat.

BASF stopped production of chloridazone in 2017. The group then "did not wish to file a new registration file at European level", its profitability being deemed insufficient, he added.

© 2022 AFP