The number of inspection visits to Danish pesticide dealers has been significantly reduced. According to a report from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (Miljøstyrelsen) as reported in Politiken, the number of inspection visits to Danish pesticide dealers has fallen by a whopping 85 percent over the past two years. Last year’s inspection visits revealed that there were violations at 75 percent of the visits to pesticide dealers. The data from the Environmental Protection Agency shows that half of the violations related to the sale or storage of illegal pesticides. Pesticides, also known as herbicides, are used for weed control, protecting crops from pests, and influencing the growth of plants.
Lars Midtiby, the director of the Danish Society for Nature Conservation (Danmarks Naturfredningsforening), expresses great concern over the high proportion of violations. He said, “It shows a very lax attitude towards some of the harmful substances, which can potentially have very significant harmful effects on our nature, our drinking water, and human health. It is both surprising and very shameful that the numbers are as serious as they are,” he told Politiken. The survey shows that last year there were a total of 16 inspection visits to dealers. In comparison, there were 51 inspections in 2022 and 103 in 2021.
According to the Chemical Inspection (Kemikalieinspektionen), which is responsible for inspection visits, these are only carried out based on a risk assessment, meaning that only dealers suspected of breaking the rules are inspected. However, Lars Midtiby believes that the high number of violations necessitates increased inspection efforts. In 2017, a target was set to reduce the proportion of violations to five percent by 2019, but this target was not met. Two years ago, a political strategy was presented focusing on increasing the number of inspections, but the trend has been in the opposite direction.
Politiken has been unsuccessful in obtaining a comment from Minister of Environment Magnus Heunicke (Social Democrats). The Ministry of Environment justifies the declining number of inspection visits with other priorities but expects the number of inspection visits to increase in the current year.