Pesticides continue to play major roles both in maintaining a high level of agricultural productivity and in public health programmes. However, these chemicals are designed to be biologically active, and given the widespread and increasing use worldwide, there is a great potential for affecting non-target organisms, including humans.
The International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) has for many years given the evaluation of risks to human health and the environment from pesticide exposures an extremely high priority. The data available to IPCS regarding the adverse effects of pesticides on the total environment is often sparse; and, where available, they are often collected by methods not necessarily accepted worldwide nor supported by present day scientific knowledge.
In this monograph, the Scientific Group on Methodologies for the Safety Evaluation of Chemicals (SGOMSEC) has tackled an extremely complex problem, that is, the evaluation of methods to assess the adverse effects of pesticides on non-target organisms. This scientific evaluation and its recommendations for future studies will hopefully encourage scientists worldwide to address an extremely important area of public health and ecotoxicology using appropriate methodologies. I am confident that these activities will generate the much needed data for more complete scientific evaluations by IPCS and national authorities. In addition, these data will hopefully support the development of rational integrated pest management strategies in both developed and developing countries, maintaining the level of public health protection and agricultural production already achieved while at the same time decreasing the level of pesticide use.
| Michel J. Mercier | |
| Manager, International | |
| Programme on Chemical Safety |
|
The electronic version of this publication has been
prepared at |