Your Daily Poison - Pesticide Action Network UK

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6. Introduce and publish, as part of the
national pesticides strategy, standardised
national protocols for the selection of
laboratory analyses of pesticides in food,
water and air, for the use of water
companies, local authorities, the Drinking
Water Inspectorate, the Pesticide Residues
Committee, and academic and research
institutions engaged in this work.
7. Review the approvals of pesticides which
are repeatedly detected in water supplies,
or detected after a specific number of
occurrences, and if residues in water
cannot be avoided their approval should be
revoked.
8. Provide opportunities for public consultation
in decision-making about the extent of
testing and its resourcing. There should be
a window for public consultation in the
approvals process for every pesticide, as
there exists for genetically modified
organisms.
9. Oblige agrochemical and veterinary
medicines companies trading in UK to
disclose full details and data from tests
conducted on human subjects of any
substance approved in the UK anywhere in
the world since 2000, so that their ethical
and scientific implications can be
scrutinised by policy-makers, parliament,
and the public, and regulatory control
introduced.
STRENGTHEN POST-APPROVALS HUMAN
HEALTH SURVEILLANCE
10. Act on the Royal Commission’s
recommendations and to introduce an
effective surveillance scheme for pesticide-
related disease, to be run by the Health
Protection Agency (HPA) (and the
equivalent organisations in the devolved
administrations), the cost of which
(estimated at £5-10 million per year) should
be covered by a levy on pesticides sales.
The HPA and related organisations in the
devolved administrations should collect
population data on pesticides and other
chemicals and their biomarkers suspected
to cause chronic diseases. A national
pesticide and chemical exposure database
should be initiated.
11. Press within the European Parliament and
Commission for a Europe-wide biological
monitoring programme of pesticides and
chemicals in humans, in conjunction with
the Health Protection Agency’s remit above.
12. Implement a programme of primary
prevention of diseases linked with
pesticides — including cancer and also
neurological disease, reproductive disease,
immunological disease, respiratory disease,
and skin disease — through a national
programme of exposure reduction to toxic
substances and the adoption of an
adequately funded and supported toxics
use reduction strategy, including a
programme to phase out pesticides which
are known to be relatively hazardous.
PROVIDE PUBLIC INFORMATION
13. Give residents, walkers, and all other
countryside users the right to know what
pesticides they are being exposed to by
introducing mandatory notification of use
both in advance and with signs on site.
14. Initiate a scientific and public debate on the
potential benefits of reduced chemical use.
Your daily poison