Outcome of the Public Consultation on the Draft Scientific Opinion on the science behind the guidance for scenario selection and scenario parameterisation for predicting environmental concentrations of plant protection products in soil

Report (0.5 Mb)

Summary

The EFSA Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR Panel) carried out a public consultation on its Draft Scientific Opinion on the science behind the guidance for scenario selection and scenario parameterisation for predicting environmental concentrations of plant protection products in soil. The Opinion provides a revised methodology for assessing the exposure of soil organisms both for concentrations in total soil and in pore water. The goal of the exposure assessment is provisionally the 90^th percentile of the exposure concentration in the intended area of use in each of the three regulatory geographical zones. The exposure-assessment methodology is restricted to spray applications to annual crops under conventional or reduced tillage. The methodology is based on a tiered approach. Given the complexity of the calculations in the different tiers, the development of user-friendly software tools is recommended.

The public consultation was open from 19 July to 13 September 2011, being held to obtain input from stakeholders about the new proposals included in the Scientific Opinion. In total, 135 comments were received.

This report summarises the scope of the comments, and sets out the response of the PPR Panel to the specific points raised by stakeholders. EFSA wishes to thank all stakeholders for their contributions.