1. Crop protection products

With around 78,300 tonnes of substances used in France in 2005, France is Europe's 1 ^st consumer of plant protection products and the world's 3rd largest consumer, behind the United States and Japan. If the quantity used is related to the number of cultivated hectares (excluding permanent grassland), France ranks 3rd in Europe with 5.4 kg/ha/year. Of these 78,300 tonnes, 90 to 94% are used in agriculture, 3 to 5% in home gardens and 3 to 5% by local authorities, DDE and SNCF. Almost 90% of the pesticides used by local authorities are weedkillers. While the trend in quantities used has shown a clear reduction in recent years, this trend needs to be put into perspective, and does not necessarily reflect a proportional reduction in the "toxic load", particularly in view of the following factors:

• the...