Maximum residual levels of pesticides and public health: best friends or faux amis?

Myriam Carrère, Federica Demaria and Sophie Drogué
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Sophie Drogué

Agricultural Economics, 2018, vol. 49, issue 1, 111-118

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to analyze the relation between public health and the regulations of Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) of pesticides. Many authors underline the role of trade protectionism in fixing these limits, whereas these regulations should be intended for public health protection. We first establish the link between the MRL for a given chemical in plant products and its level of toxicity. In order to perform this analysis, we cross the FAS USDA MRL database and the classification of the long†term toxicological effects (LTE) for active substances provided by SAgE pesticide. We then compute a synthetic and polyvalent tool, namely, “Health Score,†which provides a first overview of the link between LTE and MRL by country. Then this score is regressed in a logit model in order to identify the relationship between the countries’ Health Score and the socioeconomic and political characteristics of such areas. Results highlight the importance of public health expenditures in determining the settings of MRL toward stricter levels.

Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12399

Related works:
Working Paper: Maximum residual levels of pesticides and public health: best friends or faux amis? (2018)
Working Paper: Maximum residual levels of pesticides and public health: best friends or faux amis ? (2015)
Working Paper: Maximum residual levels of pesticides and public health: best friends or faux amis ? (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:agecon:v:49:y:2018:i:1:p:111-118

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0169-5150

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Economics is currently edited by W.A. Masters and G.E. Shively

More articles in Agricultural Economics from International Association of Agricultural Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().