PRESS RELEASE
Paying To Be Poisoned
Existing pesticide policy could be costing the
country billions
A prominent pesticide campaigner has told the
Government that the cost to the economy and society as a whole from the use of
pesticides could be running into billions.
Georgina Downs has conducted a determined
campaign to change Government Policy that has at last forced this matter into
the public arena. In her "heavyweight" response to the Government’s Consultation
on Introducing No-Spray Zones around residential properties she has pulled
together all the confirmed external costs of pesticide use as well as examining
other areas where pesticides have been attributed with causing widespread
damage.
She states that DEFRA’s Consultation Document
has focused on the negative implications for the farming industry and economics
of production if no-spray zones were to be introduced and does not address the
substantial health and environmental costs and devastating consequences that
already exist from the use of chemicals in agriculture. These external costs
include damage to human health (both acute and chronic) contamination of air,
water, soil, biodiversity and impacts on the wider environment.
Ms. Downs states "At present members of the
public subsidise intensive farming at a cost of approx. #3 billion per year, but
the taxpayer then has to pay again in both financial and human terms for the
damage caused to their health and the wider environment. This obviously has
massive economic and financial implications for all parties, with the exception
of the pesticide industry."
Ms. Downs continues to receive emails and
letters from people all over the country reporting a variety of medical
conditions in communities surrounded by fields that are regularly sprayed. The
most common illnesses that are being reported are clusters of cancers,
(especially breast cancer among rural women) leukaemia, ME and asthma. She
points out that a recent European initiative has finally acknowledged that
pesticides are possibly related to immunological effects, endocrine-disrupting
effects, neurotoxic disorders and cancer.
Ms. Downs calculates that the total cost to the
UK with regard to cancer, ME and asthma alone is in excess of #6 billion. She
says "It is not known what proportion of the overall costs from damage to health
and environment could be attributable to pesticides, however, even if only
partly then the cost to the economy and society, as whole, would be substantial
and run into billions." Ms. Downs points out that the personal and human costs
to individuals suffering pesticide related ill-health cannot be calculated in
financial terms.
In responding to the Consultation proposals Ms.
Downs has criticised the existing regulations and monitoring system as "totally
inadequate."
She says that the Consultation Document seems
to have centred on the problem of immediate visible spraydrift only and not the
wider issue of the long-term exposures to pesticides in the air. "This is a
fundamental point in relation to the case that has been presented to the
Government over the last year," she states, "as pesticide particles and droplets
cannot be controlled once they have been dispersed into the surrounding air,
they are airborne contaminants. Pesticides in the air can travel considerable
distances resulting in widespread toxic air pollution and studies have shown
pesticide particles located miles away from where they were originally applied.
Therefore a small buffer zone is not going to be adequate or in anyway
acceptable to protect residents and others from the high level of risk inherent
in the spraying of agricultural chemicals or prevent contamination of their
land."
Ms. Downs has included with her submission
studies and documentation from around the world demonstrating the dangers for
people living in rural areas. She has hit back at the NFU who earlier stated
that there was no justification for introducing no-spray zones and says "It will
be interesting to see if the NFU still say that after seeing the evidence in my
submission."
This evidence will include a "hard-hitting"
video of cases from all over the country of people who have suffered at the
hands of agricultural chemicals and Ms. Downs invites the NFU to accompany her
on her travels to see the reality for themselves.
She states that the introduction of mandatory
no-spray zones within a certain distance of homes, schools, workplaces and any
other places of human habitation are essential and an urgent
priority.
Ms. Downs says, "These chemicals are poisons
and as long as we the public are subsidising agriculture we should have some say
in what it does. This is not a matter of "social acceptability" or " public
perception" it is quite simply a matter of public health."
----Notes to editors----
Pesticides are poisonous chemicals and are
extremely hazardous to human health
The principle aim of pesticide regulation in the UK
is supposed to be the protection of public health
There is no legal obligation for farmers to notify
anyone of any intended spraying application or to supply information on the
chemicals being used, regardless of whether adverse health effects have been
suffered
At the present time a crop-sprayer is legally
allowed to repeatedly spray mixtures of poisonous chemicals right up to the open
window of any occupied premises whether it be a resident’s home, a school
(nursery, infant, primary etc.) a home for the elderly or disabled or any office
or workplace.
Countless numbers of people have regularly suffered
ill-health effects following exposure to these chemicals and Ms. Downs has been
contacted by people from all over the country who are reporting clusters of
cancers, neurological diseases and other medical conditions in communities
surrounded by regularly sprayed fields
Ms. Downs has lived next to regularly sprayed
fields for 20 years. She was invited by Professor David Coggon, Chairman of the
Government’s Advisory Committee on Pesticides to present a paper entitled "Why
the bystander risk assessment does not equate to real-life exposure scenarios,"
for their Open Meeting on July 10th 2002. The paper and transcripts of the
meeting can be found at www.pesticides.gov.uk
Ms. Downs also produced a video illustrating
chemical exposure that was also presented at the ACP meeting and is available
upon request
Ms. Downs met with Lord Whitty and Michael Meacher
on December 17th 2002 to present her case for a change in the regulations and
legislation governing agricultural spraying. She has called for a ban on
crop-spraying and the use of pesticides near to people's homes, schools,
workplaces and any other places of human habitation and for the introduction of
a new legal obligation to warn people before spraying and to provide the
necessary chemical information
Ms. Downs' campaign was featured on The Food
Police BBC1 March 26th; The Observer on April 13th ("Georgina's Fight Against
Toxic Peril" and "Can We Have a Breath of Fresh Air?") on Farming Today BBC
Radio 4 on March 25th and May 3rd; (NB. The HSE admitted on this programme that
it has absolutely no idea how many people in the countryside are actually
suffering from ill-health that’s related to pesticides) and in various other
media
Further information in relation to Ms. Downs’
submission to the Government’s Consultation "Proposals for the Introduction of
No-spray zones between spraying areas and residential properties in England and
Wales" is available on request
Contact: Georgina Downs
Telephone: 01243 773846