Health safety: “By weakening ANSES, we are undermining the very principle of independent expertise”

Since its creation, the French National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) has played a key role in protecting public health and the environment.

Health safety agencies were established after several major health crises (asbestos, contaminated blood, mad cow disease, etc.), which demonstrated the need to structure a scientific expertise capacity responsible for risk assessment, capable of informing public decision-making on risk management. The main objective of this independent and transparent public expertise is to protect the conditions for public decision-making in health matters.

In order to strengthen the protection of public health and the environment, the Future Law on Agriculture of 13 October 2014 transferred to ANSES the authority to issue marketing authorisations for plant protection products, previously the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture. ANSES has become the national reference for the authorisation of plant protection products, comparable to the mission carried out by the National Agency for Veterinary Medicines for veterinary medicines, an agency integrated into ANSES in July 2010.

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