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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface: The regulation of pesticides in Europe – past, present and future
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The characteristics of accumulative chemicals
- Part II Estimating the costs of chemical accumulation
- Part III The analysis of market and regulatory failure
- Part IV Policies for regulating chemical accumulation
- 9 Optimal policies for regulating persistent chemicals
10 - An analysis of alternative legal instruments for the regulation of pesticides
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface: The regulation of pesticides in Europe – past, present and future
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The characteristics of accumulative chemicals
- Part II Estimating the costs of chemical accumulation
- Part III The analysis of market and regulatory failure
- Part IV Policies for regulating chemical accumulation
- 9 Optimal policies for regulating persistent chemicals
Summary
Introduction
This chapter is a follow up to a previous paper in which a first attempt was made to address some of the institutional aspects of the European Commission Directive on drinking water. Whereas the previous paper, after a short theoretical introduction, focused mainly on the legal history of the Directive and its implementation in Italy, this chapter is devoted to the more theoretical question of what legal instruments can be used to avoid an accumulation of pesticides in drinking water. The current situation with drinking water is that the EU is using Directives to set strict quality standards to protect drinking-water supplies. Once these EU standards are set, the Member States have to implement them in their national systems. It has been shown that the current regulatory approach for pesticides is not functioning satisfactorily. The research by the ecotoxicology group has demonstrated that the current Italian approach of a ban on one pesticide (i.e. atrazine) is inefficient since it does not prevent an accumulation in drinking water of other pesticides. Moreover, the research has shown that the real problem with pesticides is not their toxicity, but more importantly the accumulation of potentially toxic elements in drinking water. The current regulatory approach gives the wrong incentives to pesticide manufacturers and to the users of the pesticides, the farmers. It does not lead to a reduction of toxic pesticide accumulation in drinking water.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Regulating Chemical Accumulation in the EnvironmentThe Integration of Toxicology and Economics in Environmental Policy-making, pp. 249 - 278Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998