Member States may apply different timetables and inspection intervals with exceptions following a risk assessment and exempt handheld pesticide application equipment or knapsack sprayers : Introduction paper

Article 8/3 of the European Directive 2009/128/EC establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides allows the Member States to derogate from the mandatory inspection at regular intervals for certain types of pesticide application equipment (PAE). The derogation is based on a risk assessment for human health and environment and an assessment of scale of use. The FWD does not give any clear instruction and/or indication on these assessments. Nevertheless the MS will have to carry out these ones if they want to introduce derogation and without having a clear protocol, an uneven situation may occur within the MS. Risk assessments should be clarified. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of risk assessment based on a literature review and to clarify this assessment in regard with the Directive 2009/128/EC. Key words: sprayer inspection, derogation, risk assessment