The approval of pesticides is not strict, and long-term abuse will not only easily lead to environmental damage, but also cause more serious poisoning reactions after the human body absorbs food containing pesticides. Recently, five non-governmental organizations filed a petition with the Paris Administrative Court, asking France to re-examine the approval process for pesticides to be placed on the market.

Caption: Pesticides are widely used in France. Image source: European Times

According to the European Times, in the eyes of the five NGOs, France's existing pesticide approval process is completely outdated. The head of the NGO Pollinis said: "France has a big problem with the risk assessment of pesticides approved for the market, and the consequence is that the environment is constantly being destroyed. We hope that France will compensate for these environmental losses and re-examine the The approval process for pesticides to be put on the market.” The person in charge said, for example, the approval process did not test the long-term toxic effects of pesticides and the consequences of cross-use with other pesticides from multiple perspectives, “This is an obvious loopholes.”

In a complaint filed with the Paris Administrative Court, five NGOs made a number of demands, including removing pesticides from the market that kill other organisms, reforming the pesticide approval process, publishing the All normative research done in agricultural chemistry. "There are huge loopholes in the current approval process, resulting in products that are seriously toxic to the environment being put on the market. Our appeal is that the government must solve this problem as soon as possible and accelerate the transition to environmentally friendly agriculture."

When pesticides are sprayed on plants, they also enter the human body through the food chain, causing more serious consequences. In April last year, the French consumer association UFC-Que Choisir revealed that more than 1 million consumers in France use polluted tap water, mainly in rural areas, and the pollution is mostly due to the use of pesticides. Germany has also found toxic pesticides in hot herbal teas on the market. According to the German Kaiyuan.com report, the German quality evaluation agency ?kotest conducted an evaluation of 50 kinds of unscented herbal teas on the market in October last year, and the insecticide "chlorpyrifos" was found in many herbal teas. This insecticide can cause inhibition of human cholinesterase and accumulate in the nervous system, causing nausea, dizziness, and even unconsciousness. High exposure can also cause respiratory paralysis and death. Although the EU has banned the use of such pesticides since 2020, it is still impossible to ban them in practice. ?kotest said that as long as the pesticide residue in the herbal tea exceeds 0.01 mg/kg, the herbal tea is a contaminated product and cannot be consumed.

Even more outrageous, some pesticides have become new drugs. In the United States, teenagers have heated the insecticide and injected it intravenously, or sprayed the spray insecticide on cigarettes and smoked it. The smoker will then experience symptoms such as drooling and agitation. Health officials have pointed out that the pesticide, which contains high concentrations of the active ingredient, can cause unpredictable behavior in people, which can cause central nervous system hyperactivity, muscle spasms, seizures and even coma. The biggest problem, says Dr. Danielle Daniel, director of the Poison Center at Indiana University School of Medicine, is that these pesticides are readily available, and they contain synthetic drugs that standard drug tests cannot detect.