ANTONIO CONTO1,*, FRANCESCA FASANO2

*Corresponding author
1.Founder and Managing director, ChemSafe, Italy
2. Head of Chemsafe Chemical Business Unit, ChemSafe, Italy

Foreward
The Biocidal Products Directive n. 98/8/EC (also known as the BPD) entered into force on 14th May 2000 and was the first EU wide scheme under which biocides (active substances and products) were regulated and assessed for their safety to people, animals and the environment. The BPD introduced for the first time the concept of the mutual recognition of authorisations within the Community. A fundamental aim of the BPD was to establish a positive list of actives substance which may be used in biocidal products. Once a biocidal product was authorized under the Directive in one EU Member State, authorization could then be easely granted in all other Member States.
Since the BPD was written as a ‘Directive’, each EU Member State was then responsible for implementing the BPD into their national law. This caused some discrepancies between Member States within the first year of application.
Annex I of the BPD contained all the biocidal active substances that had been assessed and approved for use in biocidal products. The ultimate target of companies submitting active substance BPD dossiers was to gain ‘Annex I inclusion’.
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