Prospects for urban pest management in Europe under the biocidal product directive 98/8/EC

Abstract:
The Biocidal Products Directive (98/8/EC), or BPD, is a recent piece of pan-European legislation that has been incorporated into the national law of each member state. It will regulate all biocidal products that are not covered by earlier legislation that deals with crop protection products (91/414/EC). The objective of the BPD is to foster free trade, within Europe, of effective biocidal products that do not pose a significant risk to human health, non-target animals or the environment. However, it imposes a heavy cost burden on the manufacturers of a wide range of what are essentially niche market products, due to the standards required in the updated registration dossiers. Implementation of the BPD may result in many active substances, and their associated products, being withdrawn from the market. More than half the chemicals that were covered by the legislation will be withdrawn by the end of August 2006 since the manufacturers will not try to defend them. For the 370 remaining substances, industry is faced with dossier submissions in 4 rounds. List 1 dossiers, comprising rodenticides and wood preservatives, were submitted in early 2004. List 2 dossiers, which include public health insecticides, will be submitted early in 2006. Many of these substances are also covered by 91/414/EC. Full implementation of the BPD will mean that the European biocides market will contain substantially fewer active substances in 2010 than in 2000.