The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) has requested the withdrawal of 76 epoxiconazole-based pesticides. This decision comes as the result of ANSES’s new evaluation of the endocrine disrupting properties of epoxiconazole.

Epoxiconazole is a fungicidal active substance widely used to treat cereal crops. It is already listed as being persistent and toxic, as well as a suspected carcinogen and presumed to be toxic to human reproduction.

It is authorized for use on the European market until 2020. In 2015, France made a request to have this EU authorisation re-considered, but with no success. Now, in application of the 2018 European criteria for the identification of endocrine disrupting chemicals, ANSES is concluding that epoxiconazole is an endocrine disruptor for humans and non-target organisms, and that it has a level of hazard which is of concern for people and the environment. The agency’s decision has been notified to the European Commission and to the competent authorities of all EU Member States.

The EDC-Free Europe coalition welcomes the decision from the French agency and calls on the European Commission to swiftly follow the French decision on epoxiconazole, in order to ensure a high level of health and environment protection for all European citizens.