Companies that manufacture pesticides are required by national regulators (such as the European Food Safety Authority, US Environmental Protection Agency and UK Health and Safety Executive) to conduct toxicity testing as a key part of the process through which an active substance is approved.  The data generated by this toxicity testing is fed into risk assessments which are then used to determine the extent and nature of the potential harm an active substance poses to human health and the environment.  When we say an active substance is a ‘water contaminant’ or ‘carcinogen’, it is based on the results of these national risk assessments.

There are a number of databases that collate this toxicity data and regulatory decisions from around the world. To ascertain the impacts of the five active substances listed above, PAN UK used the following two sources: