CEPA asks European legislator to monitor internet sales of biocides more closely
In order to guarantee the safe use of biocides, European legislators have introduced increasingly stringent conditions for their authorisation, distribution, sale and application by approved professionals. However, cyber technology has given birth to new distribution systems that appear to be beyond legal control. With the arrival of online sales it has become a real challenge to organize quality and safety monitoring of products. It goes without saying that all the measures designed to guarantee the safe use of biocides fall short if anyone can buy biocides on the Internet and subsequently use them without any form of training or supervision.
Recent media reports have alerted public opinion to the sale of fake pharmaceuticals via the Internet and have exposed the problems they create for authorities as well as the danger they represent for citizens. Unfortunately, the professional urban pest management sector has not been spared of this practice and the dangers it entails.
More and more web pages are being devoted to the sale of biocides. This has resulted in the occurrence of two serious risks, on the one hand the distribution and sale of fake products and on the other the distribution and sale of biocides which are intended for professional use only.
Several recent cases were reported by ANECPLA, a CEPA member and leading Pest Management Association in Spain. In two of the cases, the general public has access via the Internet to products that have been designed for professional use only.
Furthermore, in one site, the product on offer on a Spanish website, is labelled in French, making it difficult for Spanish nationals who might buy this product, to understand the usage and safety recommendations. As a result of the publicity one of the websites has already removed the products pending an investigation.
The Confederation of European Pest management Associations (CEPA), speaking on behalf of its members, believes that this practice is contrary to the objectives that led to the introduction of the Biocidal Products Regulation and poses a serious risk to European citizens and the environment in which they live. CEPA appealed to the European legislator to consider measures to protect the general public from the risks of unmonitored Internet access to and subsequent use by unqualified individuals of Biocidal Products that have been designed for professional use only.
CEPA believes that more stringent custom controls during shipping should be considered as well as steps to facilitate and expedite criminal offence procedures against offenders. Source CEPA, www.cepa-europe.org.
Published in International Pest Control – January/February 2013 issue.
Category: International Pest News
