The French Constitutional Council ruled on Thursday that part of the so-called Duplomb Act is contrary to the Constitution. That to write French media. It is about the part that would most likely allow the use of a carcinogenic pesticide. ‘The Wise’, as the members of the Council are called, state that if the use of, among other things, Acetamipride was re -permitted, “the right to live in a healthy environment” could not be guaranteed.
The law was previously fully adopted by both chambers of the French parliament, but led to a lot of criticism in France. A petition handed in with the Assemblée received more than 2.1 million signatures – more than ever for such a petition. The League against Cancer, the Order of Doctors and Environmental Organizations also expressed themselves against the law because of concerns about the influence on the environment and public health.
If the Duplomb Act had been completely reintroduced in it, in some cases it would have been legal again to use the pesticide acetamipride. This is a substance that falls under the group of neonicotinoids. The use of most neonicotinoids has been forbidden in France since 2018 because they are very harmful to, among other things, bees and other pollinating insects.
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Opponents of the Duplomb Act were not only afraid of damage to biodiversity and the environment, they also pointed to studies that show that acetamipride may penetrate the womb and thus influence the development of the nervous children. In a general sense, exposure to pesticides can lead to an increased chance of different cancer and diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s – especially farmers themselves are the victims of this. Some opponents expressed the concern that if acetamipride were admitted, other toxic substances could have been legalized in the future.
Proponents of the law think it is unfair that French farmers are not allowed to use the poison because this would lead to unfair competition: the use of the poison is permitted in other EU countries until 2033. Nevertheless, there are also worries at European level: the European Authority for Food Safety (EFSA) spoke last year about “enormous uncertainties” about the influence of material on development of unborn children and called for more research to “get a more robust understanding of the dangers and risks.”
There are still a number of other measures in the Duplomb Act that lead to criticism. This makes it easier for farmers to build mega stables for intensive animal husbandry and so -called Mégabassines To be installed: huge bins for the storage of rain and draining surface water and in some cases groundwater. Environmental activists are against this because this would extract the increasingly scarce water from nature and the environment.
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