Mixtures of pesticides and veterinary medicines

Risk assessment of pesticides is usually carried out on individual substances, and doesn't look at how pesticides might act in combination. However, foods can contain a mixture of pesticides, so people may eat different foods at the same time that each contain several different pesticides. Over a lifetime, people will be exposed to many pesticides.

Some people are concerned that being exposed to a 'cocktail' of pesticides may harm people's health. The Agency asked the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) to consider the health implications of this issue. COT set up a Working Group for the Risk Assessment of Mixtures of Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines (WiGRAMP). The WiGRAMP report, published in October 2002, concluded that the risk to people's health from mixtures of residues is likely to be small and it made a number of recommendations.

In July 2003, the Agency published a draft action plan on the risk assessment of mixtures of pesticides and similar substances for public consultation. The final action plan was published in March 2005 and puts into place a programme that investigates the assessment of any risks from the combined effect of different pesticides in food.

The Agency has also set up a research programme to take forward the specific recommendations of the COT Report.