The State Duma received a bill aimed at improving state control in the field of safe handling of pesticides and agrochemicals.
The amendments establish mandatory requirements in this area, and also regulate the implementation of state control in the field of the safe handling of pesticides and agrochemicals, including at checkpoints across the border of the Russian Federation.
If the bill is adopted, the government will be empowered to approve the Regulation on State Control over the Safe Handling of Pesticides and Agrochemicals. This document will delimit the powers of federal control and supervisory bodies. Previously, supervision in this area was carried out by the Rosselkhoznadzor. However, in August 2011, amendments entered into force that “do not provide for the powers of Rosselkhoznadzor and other federal supervisory authorities in this area,” the authors of the amendments explain.
The project proposed by the government establishes that “the mandatory requirements for the safety of pesticides and agrochemicals, the processes of their application, the rules and forms for assessing their compliance with these mandatory requirements are established by international treaties of the Russian Federation, the law of the Eurasian Economic Union and the legislation of the Russian Federation in the field of technical regulation, environmental protection and sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population ”.
The regulation will also stipulate that control is carried out during the production of pesticides and agrochemicals in the Russian Federation, their import into the country, storage, sale, use, neutralization and disposal. At the same time, it will be possible to import these substances into Russia only through specialized checkpoints, which will be established by the Cabinet.
The adoption of the bill will ensure compliance with the rules for the use of pesticides and agrochemicals, eliminate the negative impact on human health and the environment when used in agriculture, the authors of the amendments conclude.