UK forced to review pesticide policy

Date:11-18-2008

UK has failed to comply with an EU directive on the safe use of pesticide. The government has been ordered to review its policies on the use of pesticides after a green campaigner won a landmark victory in the high court.

The government has been ordered to review its policies on the use of pesticides after a green campaigner won a landmark victory in the high court.

Environmental campaigner Georgina Downs, who heads up the UK Pesticides Campaign, has been fighting for seven years for the government to address the issue of risks posed to people living in areas where pesticides are regularly sprayed -- a battle which on Friday ended up in London's High Court.

In his ruling, Mr Justice Collins said Downs had presented "solid evidence" about the risks to those living in the countryside and found that the government had failed to comply with an EU directive on the safe use of pesticide.

He ordered the government to rethink the way it assesses the risk posed by spraying pesticides -- a risk which is currently based on a scenario where someone is exposed to pesticides as a one-off occurrence and not on a long-term basis.

Describing the issues as "one of the biggest public health scandals of our time," Downs said the government had turned a blind eye to the concerns of those "who are repeatedly exposed to mixtures of pesticides and other chemicals throughout the year, and in many cases, like mine, for decades".

Downs herself was first exposed to pesticides in her parents' garden on the edge of farmland near Chichester at the age of 11 when she began to suffer from an array of health problems -- from flu-like symptoms and sore throats to blistering and other problems.

As part of her case against the government, Downs gathered evidence from residents suffering from a range of health including cancer, Parkinson's disease, ME and asthma -- all of which could be linked to crop spraying.

People, she said, were not informed about what was being sprayed near their homes and gardens. "The fact that there has never been any assessment of the risk to health for the long-term exposure for those who live, work or go to school near pesticide-sprayed fields is an absolute scandal, considering that crop-spraying has been a predominant feature of agriculture for over 50 years," she said.

In response to the ruling, a spokesman for the department of environment, food and rural affairs (DEFRA) said: "The protection of human health is paramount.

"We will look at this judgement in detail to see whether there are ways in which we can strengthen our system further and also to consider whether it could put us out of step with the rest of Europe and have implications for other member states."