Two new SPRINT policy briefs translate project findings into recommendations for strengthening EU pesticide risk assessment across the full regulatory cycle, from assessment before approval to surveillance under real-world conditions of use.

The first brief focuses on pre-market risk assessment. Drawing on SPRINT monitoring, modelling and experimental research, it shows that current approaches do not fully capture the complexity of real-world exposure. SPRINT findings highlight challenges associated with mixture effects, legacy contamination, environmental transport, aggregate dietary and non-dietary exposure, sensitive species and vulnerable life stages.

The brief links these findings to concrete recommendations for implementing Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 more effectively. These include updating EFSA guidance and the data requirements under Regulations (EU) No 283/2013 and 284/2013, expanding the use of sensitive species and endpoints, improving assessments of pesticide mixtures and environmental fate, and better integrating non-dietary exposure and vulnerable life stages into regulatory testing. Many of these improvements could therefore be introduced within the existing EU approval framework.

A second policy brief discusses how post-market monitoring of pesticides can detect and reduce pesticides risks to environmental and human health. Together, the briefs call for a continuous evidence loop: more realistic and sensitive assessment before pesticides are approved, followed by coordinated monitoring under real-world conditions.