Schaeffler (China) President Visited Qilin Company(2008-12-22) ZWZ Testing Center Passed Retrial of CNAS(2008-12-15) Job Vacancy in China from Boca Bearing Company(2008-12-10) Leeport Becomes Sole Agent of Safan in China(2008-12-05) The 9th CILOGRTE Held in Shanghai(2008-11-29) Energy will be pushing small and medium-sized wind power project(2008-11-20) The wind farm in Guanacaste will receive additional investment(2008-11-10) It will be installed a wind farm with private investment(2008-11-10) Origin Energy to buy power from Acciona''s Waubra wind farm(2008-11-05) HOW-TO: Make a vertical-axis wind turbine for $300(2008-11-05) Shenyang Machine Tool Forecasts an Annual Loss for 2008(2008-11-03) "Wind power" rapid expansion of the national goal two years ahead of schedule(2008-10-25) EU 1,000,000,000 euros investment in the development of new energy industry(2008-10-22) On the grid with wind farms out of the clearance operation(2008-10-16) Wind power resources to each other enterprises competing for quality investment(2008-10-16) Rolling bearing commodity inspection and acceptance(2008-10-13) The intense interest in the development of the Northern Cape manganese deposits(2008-09-04) People have remodeling jobsoften dispose of their trash on private property(2008-09-04) Ishiyamadera temple became popular with women inpart because of its proximity(2008-09-04) Limestone hills in Ma-laysia tend to have shallow soil cove(2008-09-04)Regulation (EC) No 839/2008 of the European Parliament and of theCouncil on maximum residue levels ( MRL s) of pesticides in products such as cereals, fruit and vegetablesand meat products comes into effect from today and is an amendmentof the 2005 Regulation 396/2005.
MRLs are defined as the maximum concentration of pesticide residue,expressed as milligrams of residue per kilogramme of food, likelyto occur in or on food after the use of pesticides. For activesubstances for which no MRL is included in the Regulation, adefault MRL of 0.01mg/kg will apply.
Legal challenge
Natuur en Milieu and Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe, anumbrella group of European health and environmental organisations,have lodged an appeal at the Court of First Instance to force the Commission to review the legislation.
Elliot Cannell, Coordinator, PAN Europe toldFoodProductionDaily.com that the Commission has failed to deliveron its obligation to set legal limits at the lowest achievablelevel as agreed in Regulation 396/2005.
"For each pesticide, the Commission identified the countrywith the worst safety limit and then sought to adopt this level asthe new EU-wide standard," he said.
The spokesperson for Natuur et Mileu, Hans Muilerman said thatthere was also no consideration of the cumulative effects thatpesticides have on human health.
Cannell expects the court to issue an opinion on the appeal inearly 2009.
Last week, Greenpeace and Global 2000 published a joint analysis ofthe 170,000 residue limits under the new legislation and they claimthat several hundred of the new MRLs are unsafe, in particular forthe consumption of apples, pears, grapes, tomatoes and peppers bychildren.