Scientific Opinion on emissions of plant protection products from greenhouses and crops grown under cover: outline for a new guidance EFSA Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR)

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) asked the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR) to develop an inventory of protected crop systems (e.g. greenhouses and cultivations grown under cover) and emissions from these systems to relevant environmental compartments, and to provide guidance on the importance of emission routes including the circumstances under which they are relevant. Based on literature research, the Panel concludes that such systems generally do not prevent emissions and that development of an environmental risk assessment is warranted for some cases. A system for classifying the variety of protected crop systems is proposed. Water and air may carry plant protection products across the boundaries of the systems. As the systems need ventilation and in general water is supplied in excess, it is to be expected that emissions are not necessarily different from emissions in the open field. The Panel proposes as a starting point that emissions are not different. A decision scheme was then developed in order to identify for which systems emissions might be different from field crops. However, in order to complete the decision scheme, further investigation, including scenario analyses, is necessary. These analyses will be addressed in a future opinion. The Panel concludes that it is not necessary to develop new methods for soil exposure in protected crop systems as this will be sufficiently covered by current methods.