Europe’s biocidal products directive: Benefits and costs in urban pest management

Abstract:
The European Commission’s Biocidal Products Directive, Council Directive 98/8 EC (BPD), is the largest regulatory exercise ever to affect the urban pest control industry. Its impact is global because any company selling pest control products in the European Union must follow its principles. All active substances come within the Directive’s scope of regulatory control, and involve re-registration of existing and new products. Substances, such as the rodenticides and insecticides, are already regulated but others, such as embalming fluids, masonry preservatives, disinfectants, repellents and attractants will be regulated for the first time. One of the purposes of the Directive is to offer enhanced protection for human health and the environment. The potential benefit for suppliers of pest control products is mutual recognition of regulatory product dossiers across 25 Member States of the European Union. This process, requiring harmonisation of all regulatory decision-making processes, should reduce duplicated effort and, potentially, allow manufacturers speedier access to European markets. An understanding of the BPD is essential to those who intend to place urban pest control products on the European market and may be useful to those considering the harmonisation of regulatory processes elsewhere. This paper reviews the operation of the first stages of the BPD for rodenticides, examines the potential benefits and costs of the legislation to the urban pest control industry, and looks forward to the next stages of implementation involving all insecticides used in urban pest management.