Pesticide flagged for neurotoxic effects: "EU oversight is insufficient" (C. Rudén, Stockholm University)

"The main responsibility that the effects of fluazinam on brain development went unrecognized lies with the pesticide company", says Christina Rudén, Professor in Regulatory Toxicology and Ecotoxicology at Stockholm University. “But it's the role of EFSA and the member states to evaluate, scrutinize, and supervise the industry's work."

Fluazinam, a fungicide approved in the EU in 2008 and widely used on crops such as potatoes, has come under scrutiny after a re-analysis of the original 2005 industry-funded safety study, published as a preprint on 02/07/2026, found statistical errors in how the data had been reported to regulators.

The re-analysis, carried out by researchers Axel Mie and Christina Rudén at Stockholm University, identified six instances where the testing laboratory had…