Your Daily Poison - Pesticide Action Network UK

Fatality reported
reported to PAN UK pursue their complaint
to the stage where it is dealt with by PIAP,
and none of these cases in 2004/2005 was
classified as ‘confirmed’ or ‘likely’.
Between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2005,
HSE inspectors investigated 150 pesticide
related incidents, see Table 1. This was a
reduction from the previous year’s total of 204.
Fifty five incidents involved allegations of ill
health, seven less than the previous year. The
HSE has acknowledged that under-reporting is
a problem in respect of PIAP, and a loss of
confidence in the scheme may result in fewer
reports.
b. ‘THE HUMAN HEALTH INCIDENTS
SURVEY’: PESTICIDE EXPOSURES AND
POISONINGS REPORTED TO THE PSD BY
COMPANIES
The latest survey by the PSD of incidents
reported by members of the public direct to
pesticide companies (Appendix 4a) indicates a
significant rise in cases of exposure. Reports
have risen from 137 in 2002, to 177 in 2004,
giving a total of 466 incidents reported by
companies in three years. Cases involving
children account for a steady 15 per cent each
year so far.
The low figures for pesticide-related ill-health
PAN UK traced details of a fatality listed in the PSD results of 2004. It occurred in
2002 after exposure to aldicarb, but it was not clear whether or not it was related.
The case was publicised across Scotland in the Sunday Herald newspaper 10 : the
following is an extract.
‘An official investigation into whether a young Scottish farm worker was killed by a
highly toxic pesticide had to be abandoned after a university mix-up … Graham
Stephen died on May 3, 2002, after he had applied a dangerous pesticide known as
aldicarb to a potato crop on a farm near Forfar in Tayside. He was 37.
‘After hearing from police that Stephen could have breathed in the pesticide and that
this might have helped cause his death, the procurator fiscal ordered his blood to be
screened for aldicarb. Samples were sent to the forensic science laboratories at the
University of Glasgow, but were accidentally disposed of after six months before
techniques for detecting aldicarb had been developed. The university said the incident
was a ‘regrettable accident’…
‘Aldicarb is one of the most hazardous pesticides still licensed for use on farms in the
UK. It was one of the pesticides produced at the chemical plant at Bhopal in India
where an accident in which poisonous gas was released in 1984 killed 8000 people.
Because of the risks aldicarb poses to human health and the environment, the
European Union has severely restricted it, but a ban has been resisted in the UK and
other countries, by aldicarb’s multinational manufacturer, Bayer CropScience.’
PAN UK comment: companies are required to submit an analytical method as a
condition of licensing to the regulators 11 .
4
reported by the HSE from the PIAP scheme
have been used many times to justify
reassurances by the Advisory Committee on
Pesticides (ACP) to both the public and
Ministers, that these substances are not a
significant public health issue. The ACP is the
expert committee providing advice to Ministers
on pesticides (see appendix 2). But the Human
Health Incidents Survey, first published in
December 2004 6 , instantly doubles the official
figure which for years has been estimated at
‘less than 100 incidents per year’ based on
PIAP data.
The survey was first conducted in 2003 after
PAN UK questioned whether or not the
pesticides industry had been complying with a
legal obligation to submit immediately any new
information on the adverse effects of their
products. PSD sent surveys to the companies
but despite several extensions of the deadline,
13 out of 184 companies failed to respond. The
PSD responded by revoking the licences for all
products sold by the non-responding
companies 7 . Revocations of ‘a handful 8 ’ of the
products were subsequently reversed on
receipt of the requested information from the
companies. In the most recent survey, all
companies responded. As with the previous
survey, the PSD has reported results in full on
their website 9 , but this time has withheld
company names.
Examples of exposures reported by the PSD:
◆ Children were playing on a lawn three days
after it was treated with MCPA +
dichloroprop-P + dicamba + ferrous
sulphate. Forty-eight hours later the
children had sickness and diarrhoea.
◆ Two young children were playing on the
lawn treated with MCPA + mecoprop-P +
ferrous sulphate. Both children have
developed a rash on their legs.
◆ A paddock was treated with a product
containing clopyralid and triclopyr. Some
mint was picked from it and used in
cooking potatoes. A girl aged 3 who ate
them was reported ill: she already had
tonsillitis and a temperature.
◆ A woman working as a spray operator who
was three months pregnant contacted the
company to ask if glyphosate could harm
her unborn child. The company doctor
closed the case, reporting ‘there were no
further issues’.
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