Welcome to the OECD Biocides Programme Web Site!

This site will tell you about the OECD Biocide Programme, which was created in 1996 as a spin-off from the OECD Agricultural Pesticides Programme.

The Biocides programme has two objectives:-

• To increase the efficiency in the registration of Biocides for both governments & industry.
• To help countries to reduce risks associated with biocides use.

From June 2003, the biocides work is managed by the Task Force on Biocides (TFB) .

The first question to ask is - What is a Biocide? Roughly, a Biocide is any product that has an effect on an unwanted organism, but is not a medicine, a veterinary medicine, a medical device, a food additive, an agricultural pesticide or a cosmetic. The Biocides work programme started out with a survey of how Member countries regulated Biocides and this was followed by a specific survey on efficacy testing methods. At present the work concentrates in two areas

• EFFICACY WORK
• ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT

The Summary Report of the OECD Efficacy Workshop On Certain Antimicrobial Biocides  held on 22-24 April 2002 is now available

Other Biocides work is aimed at sharing information, particularly on the review work carried out by Member countries and on specific risk reduction activities.