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Scientists demand protection of pesticide regulations

Scientists demand protection of pesticide regulations

Public health advocates raise their voices: 700 experts demand maintaining pesticide regulations in Europe.

A historic coalition of more than 700 scientists, progressive political leaders, and civil society activists has raised urgent voices to defend mandatory pesticide risk assessments across Europe. The tribune published in Le Monde represents an unmistakable warning: any weakening of these protective mechanisms would jeopardize the health of millions of European citizens, particularly agricultural workers and vulnerable rural communities who bear disproportionate exposure risks. 🔹 What happened: The signatories explicitly warn that degrading or eliminating mandatory pesticide evaluations would constitute a grave policy mistake. This position emerges days before the One Health Summit in Lyon, a platform where corporate pressures could seek to weaken regulations protecting workers and consumers. The scientific declaration functions as essential counterweight to lobbying efforts aimed at dismantling environmental and health safeguards established through decades of research documenting toxic effects. 🔹 Key players: The coalition includes independent researchers, scientists from public universities, and civil society organizations committed to environmental justice and worker protection. They face opposition from agribusiness corporate interests pressuring for reduced restrictions and fewer regulatory constraints. Small-scale farmers and local governments occupy intermediate positions, caught between productivity demands and collective health requirements. 🔹 Why it matters: Risk assessments specifically protect agricultural workers who endure the greatest pesticide exposure and rural communities depending on clean water access. Chronic chemical exposure causes neurological diseases, cancers, and reproductive problems disproportionately affecting marginalized populations. Regulatory weakening would deepen health inequalities and expose the most vulnerable to greater harm. 🔹 What to expect: Corporate sectors will attempt using the One Health Summit to pressure for deregulation and reduced oversight. Environmental and social justice movements will mobilize forcefully in response. Progressive governments face pressure maintaining high standards while agribusiness seeks "flexible transitions" and exemptions. 📌 EPM Take: Defending pesticide evaluation is defending workers' and citizens' lives, not bureaucratic excess.
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