HELCOM RECOMMENDATION 13/13
Adopted 6 February 1992, having regard to Article 13, Paragraph b) of the Helsinki Convention
This Recommendation supplements HELCOM Recommendation 8/2.
APPROVAL OF PESTICIDES FOR USE IN THE CATCHMENT AREA OF THE BALTIC SEA
THE COMMISSION,
RECALLING Article 2 of the Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area, 1974 (Helsinki Convention), in which the "land-based pollution" is defined as pollution of the sea caused by discharges from land reaching the sea waterborne, airborne or directly from the coast,
RECALLING ALSO Article 6 and Annex II of the Helsinki Convention, on the principles and obligations concerning land-based pollution,
HAVING REGARD to the Ministerial Declaration of 1988 and to the Baltic Sea Declaration of 1990, calling, inter alia, for a substantive reduction of the load of pollutants most harmful to the ecosystem of the Baltic Sea,
RECALLING FURTHER the "Procedure on how the Committees should act in a more flexible and independent way in matters relating to decisions on purely technical questions" adopted by the Commission (HELCOM 11/14, Annex 26),
DESIRING to limit the potential risk of pesticides reaching the Baltic Sea Area,
RECOMMENDS to the Governments of the Contracting Parties to take the following measures to reduce the risk of pollution by pesticides, which are meant to include acaricides, fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, molluscocides, nematocides, rodenticides used in agriculture, forestry and horticulture, slimicides and wood preservatives:
a) pesticides shall not be sold, imported or applied until approval for such purposes has been granted by the authorities;
b) registration cannot be granted for substances or products which, in connection with their use or handling and storage, or on the basis of available studies or experience, are presumed to be especially dangerous to health or especially harmful to the environment;
c) basic criteria for approval of pesticides should be elaborated within two years relevant to the Baltic Sea Area;
d) registration should be reviewed at regular intervals in accordance with those criteria;
e) national registers of approved pesticides should be published annually;
f) "banned pesticides" shall not be used. "Banned pesticides" mean pesticides which, for health or environmental reasons, can not be approved for any use as pesticides by final governmental regulatory action. A list of banned pesticides is found in Appendix,
DECIDES that the list of banned active substances used as pesticides (Appendix to this Recommendation) should be kept updated and be revised when appropriate by the Technological Committee,
RECOMMENDS ALSO that the actions stated in a), b), d), e) and f) should be implemented by the Contracting Parties within five years,
RECOMMENDS FURTHER that the actions taken by the Contracting Parties should be reported to the Commission in 1994 and thereafter every three years.