[A new programme on safety evaluation of pesticides--the IPCS Joint Meeting on Pesticides (JMP)].

International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), an international collaboration in safety evaluation of chemicals, initiated a programme called Joint Meeting on Pesticides or JMP, last autumn. The JMP is an activity contributing to harmonizing evaluation procedures and saving expertise and financial resources, having several unique features. First, the outputs of the scientific evaluations and data covering all major areas related to pesticide safety in one JMP meeting can be applied to the areas of food safety, occupational health, and environmental protection. Second, succinct presentation of the outputs of reliable evaluations in a tabular form, supported by detailed information in the Environmental Health Criteria documents help people in countries, especially those in developing ones, understand the evaluations and rely on them in establishing their guidelines on pesticide safety. This format of the JMP report is a good example for short assessment reviews on chemicals (Concise International Assessment Document) which will be prepared by an international cooperation project based on Agenda 21 decisions.