EFSA launches second consultation on bees and pesticides

EFSA has launched a second round of public consultation on the draft Guidance on the Risk Assessment of Plant Protection Products on Bees (including Apis mellifera, Bombus spp. and solitary bees).

The Guidance Document is intended to provide guidance to applicants and authorities in the context of the review of Plant Protection Products (PPPs) and their active substances under Regulation (EC) 1107/2009. A first round of public consultation was launched in September to October 2012. The chapters which were already out for public consultation are now under revision taking into consideration the comments received and are thus not the objective of this consultation.

In the meantime an approach to address guttation exposure was developed. In parallel the working group updating the aquatic Guidance Document has developed a method on how to integrate the assessment of metabolites. This enabled the working group for the bee risk assessment to make recommendations for harmonised assessment of metabolites also in the risk assessment for bees. In addition the chapter on uncertainty analysis was finalised.

The chapters for public consultation are the following:

•    Risk assessment for exposure to water, including guttation, surface water and water in
      puddles
•    Risk assessment scheme for metabolites
•    Uncertainty analysis
•    Related appendices

The consultation closes on 18 March 2013.