Field research for the authorisation of pesticides

The Minister of Public Health, Welfare and Sport, also on behalf of other members of the goverment, has requested the Health Council to review the role that results from field research can play in ecotoxicological risk assessment for the authorisation of pesticides. In this advisory report a committee of the Health Council complies with this request. It interprets the term ’field research’ in its broadest sense: the Committee understands field research to mean all of the research that exceeds the level of the standard ’single-species’ toxicity test in the laboratory. This might include ’multi-species’ toxicity tests in the laboratory, research on model ecosystems in the laboratory, glasshouse or in the open air and tests in ditches, field margins, agricultural fields etc.