Official control of plant protection products in Poland: detection of illegal products

Environmental Science and Pollution Research, Apr 2018

Market presence of illegal and counterfeit pesticides is now a global problem. According to data published in 2012 by the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA), illegal products represent over 10% of the global market of plant protection products. Financial benefits are the main reason for the prevalence of this practice. Counterfeit and illegal pesticides may contain substances that may pose a threat to the environment, crops, animals, and humans, inconsistent with the label and registration dossier. In Poland, action against illegal and counterfeit plant protection products is undertaken by the Main Inspectorate of Plant Health and Seed Inspection (PIORiN), the police, the prosecution, and the pesticide producers. Results of chemical analyses carried out by the Institute of Plant Protection - National Research Institute Sośnicowice Branch, Pesticide Quality Testing Laboratory (PQTL IPP-NRI Sosnicowice Branch) indicate that a majority of illegal pesticides in Poland are detected in the group of herbicides. Products from parallel trade tend to have the most irregularities. This article describes the official quality control system of plant protection products in Poland and presents the analytical methods for testing pesticides suspected of adulteration and recent test results.

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Official control of plant protection products in Poland: detection of illegal products

Official control of plant protection products in Poland: detection of illegal products Marek Miszczyk 0 1 2 Marlena Płonka 0 1 2 Tomasz Stobiecki 0 1 2 Dorota Kronenbach-Dylong 0 1 2 Kazimierz Waleczek 0 1 2 Roland Weber 0 1 2 0 POPs Environmental Consulting , Lindenfirststrasse 23, D-73527 Schwäbisch Gmünd , Germany 1 Pesticide Quality Testing Laboratory, Institute of Plant Protection-National Research Institute Sośnicowice Branch , Gliwicka 29 Street, 44-153 Sosnicowice , Poland 2 Marek Miszczyk 3 Tomasz Stobiecki Market presence of illegal and counterfeit pesticides is now a global problem. According to data published in 2012 by the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA), illegal products represent over 10% of the global market of plant protection products. Financial benefits are the main reason for the prevalence of this practice. Counterfeit and illegal pesticides may contain substances that may pose a threat to the environment, crops, animals, and humans, inconsistent with the label and registration dossier. In Poland, action against illegal and counterfeit plant protection products is undertaken by the Main Inspectorate of Plant Health and Seed Inspection (PIORiN), the police, the prosecution, and the pesticide producers. Results of chemical analyses carried out by the Institute of Plant Protection - National Research Institute Sośnicowice Branch, Pesticide Quality Testing Laboratory (PQTL IPP-NRI Sosnicowice Branch) indicate that a majority of illegal pesticides in Poland are detected in the group of herbicides. Products from parallel trade tend to have the most irregularities. This article describes the official quality control system of plant protection products in Poland and presents the analytical methods for testing pesticides suspected of adulteration and recent test results. Counterfeit pesticides; Monitoring; Quality of pesticides; Official control; Parallel trade; Poland Introduction The production, use, and stockpiling of pesticides have generated extensive pollution globally ( Vijgen et al. 2011 ; Torres et al. 2013 ; Götz et al. 2013 ; Toichuev et al. 2017 a, b). In the last few decades, pesticide stockpiles have partly been managed under the Stockholm Convention framework, but progress is slow and considerable improvements are needed (Dollimore and Schimpf 2013). Effective management of Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues * pesticide stockpiles is possible under the ri ght framework (Vijgen et al. 2013 ; Weber et al. 2015). Countries such as Moldova, Romania, and Poland have historically managed their unused pesticide stockpiles ( Gałuszka et al. 2011 ; Paun et al. 2014 ). However, large contaminated sites and stockpiles still exist at pesticide production sites and related landfills ( Götz et al. 2013 ; Vijgen et al. 2011 ; Weber et al. 2008 ). In recent years, the additional challenges of the presence of illegal and counterfeit pesticides on the market have become an increasing global problem (Carter and Durrant 2015; Europol 2011; Karasali et al. 2014; Malkov et al. 2015; Van Hoi et al. 2009) . The profitability of the illegal trade in counterfeit pesticides makes it one of the top ten most lucrative organized crime businesses (Europol 2015; Fishel 2015) . The first case of illegal pesticides in Europe occurred in Spain in 2000, when authorities uncovered unregistered pesticides without labels being imported from China (European Commission DG Health and Food Safety 2015) . Over the next 5 years, other attempts of introducing illegal pesticides into the market were uncovered in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland. According to estimated data published by the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) in 2012 and included in the document by the European Commission from 2 March 2015 titled BAd-hoc study on the illegal and counterfeit pesticides in the EU: Executive summary,^ illegal and counterfeit pesticides account for over 10% of the worldwide market share of plant protection products. It is estimated that this percent market share exceeds 20–30% in developing countries (Karasali et al. 2014). Based on ECPA data, it is estimated that 8– 10% of plant protection products on the European market are counterfeit. Concerning the Polish market, the scale is estimated at 10–15%. There is some evidence suggesting that the amount of illegal pesticides may depend on the geographic location of a European Union (EU) country, being higher for states bordering countries that are not EU members (European Commission DG Health and Food Safety 2015) . Some member states may report lower amounts of illegal pesticides due to inadequate control systems in these countries. The counterfeit pesticide market is growing mainly because of the large profit gained from illegal pesticide sales. The estimated value of global pesticide sales is approximately €44 billion. In the case of Poland, the value of this m a r k e t i s a p p r o x i m a t e l y € 0 . (...truncated)


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Marek Miszczyk, Marlena Płonka, Tomasz Stobiecki, Dorota Kronenbach-Dylong, Kazimierz Waleczek, Roland Weber. Official control of plant protection products in Poland: detection of illegal products, Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2018, pp. 1-11, DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-1739-2