Biomaterial Database

[Drinking water legislation, pesticides and principles for concern]. 1990

H H Dieter

Institut für Wasser-, Boden-, Lufthygiene, Bundesgesundheitsamt Berlin.

The limit values prescribed by German drinking water regulations for "pesticides and their toxic main metabolites" (PBSM) protect the consumer from imponderable toxicological risks. It therefore complies with the "principle of concern" which is part of several statutory instruments of the FRG to protect ground and drinking water. Moreover, for about 10% of the permissible active ingredients, health-based limit concentrations in drinking water can be derived which are of the same order of magnitude as the legal limit value for PBSM. The main purpose of the "PBSM Recommendation" of the Federal Health Office of July 1989 is to preserve and to restore a pesticide-free ground and drinking water situation mainly by agricultural measures with at the same time maximum possible health protection for the consumers of drinking water. The bureaucratic handling of this "Recommendation" by the Commission of the EC and the standardised pesticide admittance procedure as envisaged by the EC could seriously endanger this purpose. A consequence would be that, as already in the USA, the same situation could arise in Europe that more and more active ingredients are found in ground water in concentrations which are up to 1,000 fold higher than the respective toxicological limit values for drinking water.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008452	Maximum Allowable Concentration	The maximum exposure to a biologically active physical or chemical agent that is allowed during an 8-hour period (a workday) in a population of workers, or during a 24-hour period in the general population, which does not appear to cause appreciable harm, whether immediate or delayed for any period, in the target population. (From Lewis Dictionary of Toxicology, 1st ed)	Maximum Permissible Exposure Level,MPEL,Maximum Permissible Exposure Concentration,Allowable Concentration, Maximum,Allowable Concentrations, Maximum,Concentration, Maximum Allowable,Concentrations, Maximum Allowable,MPELs,Maximum Allowable Concentrations
D010573	Pesticide Residues	Pesticides or their breakdown products remaining in the environment following their normal use or accidental contamination.	Pesticide Residue,Residue, Pesticide,Residues, Pesticide
D011634	Public Health	Branch of medicine concerned with the prevention and control of disease and disability, and the promotion of physical and mental health of the population on the international, national, state, or municipal level.	Community Health,Environment, Preventive Medicine & Public Health,Environment, Preventive Medicine and Public Health,Health, Community,Health, Public
D005060	Europe	The continent north of AFRICA, west of ASIA and east of the ATLANTIC OCEAN.	Northern Europe,Southern Europe,Western Europe
D005062	European Union	An economic union with the principal objectives of free movement of goods, capital, and labor. The constituent countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. (https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries accessed 12/31/2020)	Common Market,Euratom,European Atomic Energy Community,European Coal and Steel Community,European Common Market,European Community,European Economic Community,Community, European Economic,EEC,Economic Community, European,Common Market, European,Common Markets,Common Markets, European,Communities, European,Communities, European Economic,Community, European,Economic Communities, European,European Common Markets,European Communities,European Economic Communities,Market, Common,Market, European Common,Union, European
D005858	Germany	A country in central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark. The capital is Berlin.
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D014881	Water Supply	Means or process of supplying water (as for a community) usually including reservoirs, tunnels, and pipelines and often the watershed from which the water is ultimately drawn. (Webster, 3d ed)	Supplies, Water,Supply, Water,Water Supplies