“Ecologically Acceptable Concentrations” When Assessing the Environmental Risks of Pesticides Under European Directive 91/414/EEC

ABSTRACT

Pesticides are authorized in the European Union under Directive 91/414/EEC. This is a two-stage process that involves EU-wide assessment for Annex I listing followed by individual Member State assessment. Recently the concept of an Ecologically Acceptable Concentration (EAC) has been used during both stages of environmental risk assessments. The EAC is a concentration at which no “unacceptable” ecological effects occur and has been interpreted as a concentration at which “acceptable” effects may be allowed to occur. This article reviews the implications of the EAC concept for pesticides risk assessment and proposes improvements to make its use more objective.

Keywords:

• ecologically acceptable concentration
• pesticides
• Directive 91/414/ EEC.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was commissioned by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) under project PN 0933. We thank the following for useful comments on earlier drafts of the article: Mark Clook, Andrew Craven, Chris Lythgo, Mark Douglas, Steve Maund, and two anonymous reviewers.