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France's food safety agency, ANSES, has banned sprays containing metam-sodium, a chemical used to sterilise soils and fight parasites in horticulture.
The EU's pesticides register shows metam-sodium was authorised in 2012.
However, the French agency has moved to ban the chemical, stating:"Following the approval of this active ingredient at EU level, ANSES re-examined all licenses for products containing meta-sodium in France. ANSES has concluded that all its uses represent a risk for human health and the environment."
Metam-sodium falls in the EU classification of products which can cause severe skin burns and eye damage. It is also toxic to aquatic life, harmful if swallowed and may cause an allergic skin reaction.
The Irish plant protection products register includes one approved metam-sodium-based product, Fumetham, made by Spanish-based manufacturer Lainco.
No alternative
Christiane Lambert, president of the French farmers' union FNSEA, disagreed with the move. "The decision to ban metam-sodium was taken before an alternative was found to replace it, leaving farmers without solutions," she said.
The announcement came after France's new minister for agriculture, Didier Guillaume, confirmed his government's plan to ban glyphosate by 2020. The active ingredient in Roundup and other herbicides is authorised at EU level until the end of 2022.
A scientific study of 70,000 French adults over seven years has made headlines in the country in recent weeks after it showed that "a significant reduction in the risk of cancer was observed among high consumers of organic food". The authors formed the hypothesis that reduced exposure to pesticide residues may have caused this result, but acknowledged that further research would be required to verify this.
France, the EU's largest agricultural producer, is influential in discussions to authorise farm chemicals at European level.
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