June - July 2006
1. PAN Europe activities
PAN Europe Annual Conference 2006
In collaboration with SANA, Legambiente and the Italian Organic
Farming Association (AIAB) we will be holding our Network Annual
Conference for members and other supporters 7-9 September in Bologna,
Italy. The conference will be held at the same time and site as
SANA, one of the largest organic fairs in the world and it will
also be an excellent opportunity to visit this fair. The central
theme for this year’ conference is Integrated Crop Management/Integrated
Pest Management and organic production with experiences from producers,
retailers and consumers, with a special emphasis in Italian/regional
examples. We will also hold our Network Annual General Meeting on
the 8th September and an optional field trip on the 9th of September.
New EU legislation on pesticides finally adopted
A Directive for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides and a new Regulation
for the placing of pesticides in the EU market have been finally
adopted by the European Commission on the 12th of July after a year’s
delay. The new proposals contain some positive developments in pesticides
policies in the EU but overall they fail to introduce the strong
measures needed to change the pesticide use paradigm in EU and to
respond to strong public health concerns voiced by the public, researchers
and health and environmental organisations.
The draft Framework Directive includes some positive measures for
restricting aerial crop-spraying, establishing ‘reduced’
or ‘pesticide-free’ zones and measures to protect water
resources, but leaves Member States ample leeway. The legislation
fails to show how to break the unsustainable link between agricultural
productivity and pesticides use. The proposed National Action Plans
just contain a vague list of voluntary measures. They lack robust
and enforceable targets for reducing pesticide use. What other measures
are missing? The list is long: procedures for collecting and storing
obsolete pesticides; mechanisms to promote a pesticide tax or levy
system, which would support safer non-chemical alternatives and
finance advisory bodies and independent training for farmers in
effective pesticide-use reduction programmes. Although Integrated
Pest management is proposed to become compulsory by 2014 onwards,
mechanisms to finance extension and training in the National Action
Plans are absent, leaving a dark cloud of doubt over the accomplishment
of this progressive measure.
The proposal to review the EU’s pesticide approval system
introduces a new zonal authorisation system for products and a mechanism
to encourage the replacement of riskier pesticides with safer alternatives.
The outlined zones include climatically different areas like Brittany
in northern France and Cyprus in the southeastern Mediterranean.
If Cyprus authorised a specific product, France would have to accept
its sale in French markets, too, with little margin to change the
approval conditions. A positive measure is the introduction of criteria
to exclude substances from the market based on their intrinsic hazards.
But the criterion affects only some endocrine disrupters and class
I and II carcinogenic, reprotoxic and mutagenic substances, leaving
behind many substances that give grounds for concern. Another positive
measure is the introduction of a strong definition of Integrated
Pest Management (FAO definition). All farmers will have to comply
with IPM as a minimum standard in crop protection from 2014 onwards.
The Commission proposals will now be discussed and approved by the
European Parliament and the Council before their final approval
in 2007 or 2008.
Agriculture Council will decide the fate of 8 hazardous
pesticides in the EU market
After Member States representatives in the EU Standing Committee
on the Food Chain and Animal Health failed to achieve qualified
majority to approve 8 hazardous pesticides in the EU market (Azinphos-methyl,
Carbendazim, Dinocap, Fenarimol, Flusilazole, Methamidophos, Procymidone
and Vinclozolin) in March 2006, it’s now up to the Ministers
to achieve a decision. A proposal was discussed and approved by
the Commission and transmitted to the Council for discussion and
voting. Despite disagreement from some Commissioners, the proposal
transmitted to the Council was similar to the one earlier rejected
in the Standing Committee. The proposed approval is for a limited
number of crops and includes mitigation measures which most of the
time would be impossible to monitor and enforce, such as: imposing
safety margins of several metres from water courses; obliging operators
to wear protective equipment during the application and cleaning
of equipment; or prohibiting re-entry into the treated area. The
discussion is scheduled for the September Agriculture Council meeting.
With the support of EEB and EEN, PAN Europe established and will
continue contacts with members of the Commission, Council and European
Parliament advocating for the ban of these substances with a 2-year
derogation period that would allow farmers to shift towards less
hazardous substances. PAN Europe has also issued a press release
and sent letters to the members of the European Commission and Council
advocating the ban and the opportunity to get Europe free of these
hazardous substances with benefits for farmers and consumers.
2. Published news and information
Approval of active ingredients in EU review
The EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCFCAH)
has approved four new active ingredients: the fungicide
metrafenone, the biopesticide Bacillus subtilis and the insecticides
spinosad and thiametoxam (the latter a likely carcinogen according
to the US Environmental Protection Agency classification). The SCFCAH
also voted for the inclusion of two existing active ingredients
to Annex I: the growth regulator ethephon (cholinesterase inhibitor)
and the nematicide fenamiphos (cholinesterase inhibitor, acute toxic
and potential groundwater contaminant).
Three substances were excluded from Annex I and
will be removed from the EU market: the organophosphate insecticides
phosalone (cholinesterase inhibitor and potential groundwater contaminant)
and fenitrothion (cholinesterase inhibitor and potential endocrine
disruptor), and the insecticide thiodicarb (cholinesterase inhibitor
and carcinogen).
The impact of herbicides present in sludge in the soil
ecosystem
Most wastewater treatment plants produce sludge which has to be
disposed of. Applying raw or treated sewage sludge to agricultural
soils can significantly reduce the sludge disposal cost component
of sewage treatment, as well as providing a large part of the nitrogen
and phosphorus requirements of many crops. But sewage sludge may
contain numerous pollutants such as heavy metals and organic compounds
although available data concerning some types of active organic
contaminants in sludge is very limited or does not exist at all.
This is the case for some herbicides, mainly used in agriculture,
but which can also be found in some domestic and industrial activities.
Only a few previous studies have measured significant amounts of
pesticides entering wastewater treatment plants, but very little
is known about their fate inside the plants and the final concentration
in the produced sludge.
A recent French study has reported for the first time the fate
of herbicides contained in sludge, when it is applied to agricultural
soils. The scientists assessed the presence of certain herbicides,
namely glyphosate, diuron and their main metabolites, in the sludge
produced in several wastewater treatment plants of urban origin
in France. Thereafter, they used terrestrial model ecosystems to
assess the biotransformation of such compounds and their mobility
onto soil leachates and higher plants.
This laboratory study shows that the fate of herbicides entering
the soil after application of contaminated sludge depends on the
type of sludge treatment (pasteurization, composting with wood,
lime stabilization of liquid sludge). Furthermore, the persistence
of the chemicals is generally increased in the presence of sludge.
The results demonstrate that the herbicides contained in sewage
sludge, and their transformation products, are more persistent than
those directly applied to the soil. They are partly mobile, and
therefore, they can be transferred to soil leachates and higher
plants, thus posing a risk to surrounding ecosystems and organisms.
The current study provides new and interesting insights regarding
the fate of herbicides in soil-water-plant systems when contaminated
sewage sludge is applied to agricultural soils. It concludes that
these compounds may have an eco-toxicological impact on the soil
ecosystems, and that there is therefore a need to better regulate
their presence in sludge used to improve agricultural soils.
Study links pesticides with Parkinson's
People with long-term, low-level exposure to pesticides have a 70
percent higher incidence of Parkinson's disease compared to people
who have not been exposed much to pesticides. Such workers include
mostly farmers, ranchers and fishermen, the researchers report in
the July issue of Annals of Neurology. Their study supports previous
research that suggests pesticides can be linked with Parkinson's,
which is caused by the destruction of key brain cells. "The
findings support the hypothesis that exposure to pesticides is a
risk factor for Parkinson's disease," they wrote.
The team examined data from a 2001 American Cancer Society survey
of 143,325 people and contacted those people who reported they had
been diagnosed with Parkinson's. The American Cancer Society was
studying factors for cancer risk and all the people had reported
on eating and lifestyle habits and environmental exposures. More
than 5,200 men and 2,600 women reported exposure to pesticides.
After adjusting for age, sex, and other risk factors for Parkinson's
disease, the researchers found a 70 percent higher incidence of
the disease among these nearly 8,000 people than among people who
reported no exposure. More men than women said they had been exposed
to pesticides and those reporting exposure were more likely to report
their occupation as farmer, rancher or fisherman, the researchers
said.
People who had other jobs and who reported pesticide exposure most
likely were using the chemicals at home or while gardening, the
researchers speculated. Exposure to asbestos, chemicals, acids,
solvents, or coal or stone dust was not associated with a higher
risk, the researchers said.
"Future studies should seek to identify the specific compounds
associated with risk," the researchers said. A class of chemicals
called organophosphates has been linked with Parkinson's risk in
other studies. There is no cure for Parkinson's, which starts off
with tremors and ends up paralyzing and often killing patients.
Globally, it is estimated 6.3 million people have Parkinson's, more
than a million in the United States alone.
Spanish farmers at risk of lymphoma
In the current study, the risk of lymphomas among subjects ever
having had a job as a farmer is compared to all other occupations.
Farmers were analyzed according to the type of farming job performed:
crop farming, animal farming and general farming. Occupational exposure
was summarized into 15 main categories: organic dust, radiation,
contact with animals, PAH (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons), non-arsenic
pesticides (carbamates, organophosphates, chlorinated hydrocarbons,
triazines and triazoles, phenoxy herbicides, chlorophenols, dibenzodioxin
and dibenzofuran), arsenic pesticides, contact with meat, contact
with children, solvents, asbestos, soldering fumes, organic colorants,
PCBs, ethylene oxide and hair dyes.
Although farmers were not at an increased risk of lymphoma as compared
to all other occupations, farmers exposed to non-arsenic pesticides
were found to be at increased risk of lymphoma. This increased risk
was observed among farmers working exclusively either as crop farmers
or as animal farmers. The study concluded that long term exposure
to non-arsenic pesticides may induce the formation and development
of lymphomas among farmers.
Altered breast tissue development in young girls linked
to pesticides
Exposure to pesticides crosses the generations, according to a new
study that finds daughters of mothers who lived near areas of heavy
agricultural spraying may be unable to breastfeed their children.
The research was conducted in Mexico, but many of these pesticides,
although they go by a different name, have the same ingredients
and are used in the United States and Europe. The connection from
mother to child was found among Sonoran Mayan girls whose mothers
were exposed to chemical spraying. They did not develop the ability
to produce milk, unlike their counterparts who lived a more organic
lifestyle.
The study found changes in breast development when comparing pre-adolescent
girls whose mothers grew up in an agricultural valley where heavy
doses of pesticides were sprayed with those who were raised in surrounding
foothills where none were used. Some of the girls in the agricultural
valley had no mammary tissue or a minimal amount. Although several
studies have examined the effects of pesticides on when puberty
begins, none have looked at how exposure influences the development
of mammary gland tissue, she said. To investigate the question,
Guillette found two population samples about 50 miles apart in the
northwestern Mexican state of Sonora’s Yaqui Valley that were
almost identical except for their exposure to pesticides.
Guillette began her research in 1966, comparing the physical coordination
and mental development in preschool children from the two communities.
In an earlier published study, she found that valley children were
less adept at catching a ball, reflecting poor eye-hand coordination,
and showed dramatic differences in their ability to draw a person.
Her more recent study focused on breast development in girls between
the ages of 8 and 10 and involved 30 girls from the valley and 20
girls who lived in the foothills. Guillette and local nurses measured
total breast diameter and mammary diameter. While breast size was
much larger in the girls in the valley, they had much less mammary
tissue, and sometimes none at all, than the girls in the foothills.
Pesticide use reduction absent in the newly unveiled
France national plan
A joint ministerial plan for the reduction of pesticides risks for
2006-2009 has been recently launched in France by the Ministries
of Agriculture and Environment. But despite the public and media
attention, the plan targets only the reduction of the most hazardous
pesticides (CRM- carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic) without
describing measures to reduce the use for pesticides with other
hazards categories. These hazardous pesticides will in any case
be removed from the market by the European Union, which is preparing
a new Regulation for the approval of pesticides with criteria to
reject active substances based on hazards.
As for other measures in the French plan, MDRGF- Mouvement pour
les Droits et le Respect de les Gènèration Futures,
PAN Europe member in France, stresses they will not introduce any
change in the pesticides paradigm in France. The plan intends to
encourage agriculture systems with low use of pesticides but only
includes “good practices”, with no incentives for systems
capable of achieving pesticide use reduction, such as organic agriculture
or Integrated Pest Management. The plan also introduces 5 meter
buffer zones to limit pesticides impacts but as the INRA study from
2005 (“Pesticides, agriculture and environment”) shows,
this measure is insufficient to limit environmental impacts of pesticides.
The plan also includes provisions to finance studies that will improve
knowledge of pesticides impacts when there are hundreds of studies
already showing the hazards of pesticides posed to users and bystanders.
Finally, the plan will evaluate the progress and set up a national
steering committee but although MDRGF has participated in all consultations
for this plan, it was not even informed about the presentation or
received a draft for comment. This start does not augur well for
good consultation practices and engagement of the public in the
important discussion of pesticide problems in France.
UK government weak in defending the rights of neighbours
The UK government has published its response on the 20th of July
to the report by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution,
‘Crop spraying and the health of residents and bystanders’,
published in September 2005. Actions to protect public health will
be delayed by years. PAN UK is shocked by this response and is now
looking to the EU for new initiatives to protect people regularly
exposed to pesticides where they live.
Despite acknowledging public concern about pesticide exposure,
the government has done nothing to alleviate it. The effect of low
pesticide doses on chronic illnesses has essentially been ignored,
despite all the evidence. Six women with breast cancer, living within
200 yards of each other in the Bedfordshire village of Shillington,
are surrounded on all sides by sprayed fields. They are concerned
about the potential role of environmental pollutants on their health
and there is nothing in the government’s response that will
reassure them.
The government has rejected: a statutory right to know about pesticides
we are exposed to; precautionary statutory buffer no-spray zones
next to people’s homes; and a tightening up of regulations
on spraying. A new national monitoring and reporting scheme for
pesticide exposure, recommended by the Royal Commission, will be
considered but not implemented until at least 2008. ‘We are
dismayed that the government has concluded that bystander exposure
problems can be solved by a voluntary approach, and seems to have
been seriously misled about existing voluntary schemes’, says
Clare Butler Ellis of PAN UK. ‘Neither the voluntary initiative
nor assured produce schemes aim to protect the public, focusing
only on environmental impacts, and have no hope of reaching 100
per cent of farmers.’
The Pesticides Safety Directorate is, this year, spending £5
million on research into the effects of pesticides on the environment,
and only £0.5 million on pesticides and health. The government
now endorses long-overdue new research on the exposure risk assessment,
but there is yet further delay on health research.
3. News from PAN Europe partners
Regulation, monitoring and pesticides residues policies
in food discussed in Slovakia
Consumers in Europe are concerned about pesticide residues in food.
A recent survey showed that 71% of the EU-25 citizens are worried
about pesticide residues in fruit, vegetables or cereals. Over 40%
of the food of plant origin contains residues from pesticides. Current
risk assessment methodology cannot definitely quantify the public
health risks of residues in the diet, but consensus is building
that dietary pesticide residues are a significant public health
concern, especially for young children. Pesticides detected as residues
in food affect not only consumers, but also wildlife and ecosystems
as a whole are at risk from the use of pesticides. Knowledge and
awareness about this issue must be rising in any country, particularly
in countries under intensification pressure in agriculture, like
the new EU member states and the accession countries. In addition,
the Central and Eastern European consumer will be increasingly confronted
with food imports from South Europe and other countries with high
pesticide usage.
This was the background for a one day seminar, organised in Slovakia
by the Centre for Sustainable Alternatives (CEPTA) and PAN Germany,
which aimed firstly to present the current situation on pesticides
residues occurrence and its monitoring in member states. Secondly,
the seminar aimed to discuss the food residues legislation at the
EU level; and thirdly, to connect NGO and official sector in field
of pesticides residues in food. The last point was to build capacity
of NGOs from the new Central and Eastern EU Member States and the
accession countries for active participation on the process towards
reducing pesticide residues in food.
At the seminar, experts such as Mrs. Prof. Hajslova from Institute
for Chemical Technology, Prague – The Czech Republic (“Pesticides
residues in food – threats and risks”); Mrs. Dipl. Ing.
Matusova from the State Veterinary and Food Administration, Bratislava
– Slovakia (“Pesticides in Food, MRL and monitoring
system in Slovakia“); Mr. Lars Neumeister, Pesticide Expert/PAN
Germany (“The Myth of Safe Fruit and Vegetables“) took
part. At the event, national reports from 6 new EU-MS and accession
countries were presented . All participants held fruitful discussions
and exchange of opinions between officials, research sector and
NGOs / consumers representatives from 8 European countries.
On the second day, an interesting field trip to an orchard was
organised. The orchard has a system of integrated fruit production
partially implemented, but strives to have the system recognised
by consumers. The field trip also included a visit to a vineyard
practising environmental-friendly wine production.
Backyard poison in Belarus
Participants of the international environmental summer camp "Clean
Dvina - Clean Baltic 2006" held from the 17-22 July have found
over a ton of obsolete pesticides in villages of Rassony district
on the outskirts of Polotsk, Belarus. Environmental group FRI, Belarus;
International Environmental Group Ecodefense!, Russia, group Graphclassic,
Belarus are among the organizers of the summer camp supported by
the Coalition Clean Baltic (CCB) and MATRA Program. Participants
of the summer camp, activists of non-governmental environmental
organizations, advocate prompt solving of the problem of obsolete
non-registered pesticides and impact of hazardous chemicals on ecosystem
of the Zapadnaya Dvina and the Baltic Sea.
The major topic of this annual environment protection event was
non-registered obsolete pesticides. According to various assessments
there are currently about 6,560 tons of obsolete pesticides in warehouses
and stockpiles in the region. Participants of the summer camp, representatives
of non-governmental environmental organizations from Belarus, Russia,
and Germany, received necessary knowledge of the danger represented
by non-registered pesticides for population and environment and
also took a number of practical actions. During the swoop through
15 settlements of Rassony district they observed several storage
units of obsolete pesticides, in particular, a decrepit warehouse
with about a ton of unknown pesticides was discovered in Golubovo
village. The state of the warehouse causes serious anxiety of environmentalists.
A shed with several dozen kilos of pesticides has also been found
in the backyard of Nikholai Goga, a resident of Gory village. Residents
of the village were not informed about the potential danger of the
warehouse contents, they did not even know about the stored pesticides.
All the revealed places of pesticides storage have been described
according to the specially developed methodology, the activists
have noted down the position data of the warehouses. The information
about hazardous pesticides will be transferred both to local authorities
and to state environment protection bodies in the nearest future.
Dozens of kilos of obsolete pesticides
were found in this shed during the international environmental summer
camp "Clean Dvina - Clean Baltic 2006" in Belarus. ©Foundation
for the Realisation of Ideas
“A plan of further work on public inventory of non-registered
obsolete pesticides has been developed during the work of the summer
camp. The participants of the camp are ready to convey such works
in other oblasts and districts of Belarus, too. Moreover, methodological
recommendations of taking part in such inventory will be developed,”
– stated Eugeniy Lobanov, one of the organizers of the summer
camp.
Senegal farmers call to British consumers: Help us
beat pesticides
As the European market for organic foods continues to expand, a
small group of farmers from Senegal whose fruit and vegetables are
pesticide-free are visiting London and other European capitals to
campaign for support from consumers. The farmers use integrated
pest management strategies, rather than chemicals, to grow fruit
and vegetables, and are worried that the power of the big supermarkets
means they don’t get a fair deal for their crops which are
in great demand in Europe.
The visit is scheduled in the framework of the “Food and
Fairness” project, led by PAN UK and with PAN Africa, PAN
Germany, Natuur en Milieu and PAN Europe as partners. They’ve
come to London to press forward their campaign for a better deal.
They say that to reduce poverty in Africa farmers need better prices
for their food and reliable access to markets. No country has developed
successfully, they say, without first consolidating its control
over agriculture. Over 45 million Africans earn their livelihood
from growing fresh fruit and vegetables for export to Europe. They
include many small-scale poor farmers, many of them women. Farmers
earn more by growing fruit and vegetables for export than the traditional
commodity crops like tea and coffee.
Pesticides are a major concern in African countries, where small-scale
farmers and agricultural workers have virtually no means of protecting
themselves against the hazards. Horticultural crops are among the
most dangerous in Africa. Instead of growing healthy crops, farmers
have for years been encouraged by pesticide sellers to use their
products – often pesticides that have been banned or restricted
elsewhere. These farmers have shown that this kind of harmful pesticide
use is unnecessary and wasteful.
But they are concerned that European standards for pesticide residues
and ‘tracing’ food are being used to block imports rather
than raise standards, even though residues are common in European-grown
tomatoes. They believe that support from British consumers can help
them in their bargaining with the supermarkets. This includes getting
better prices and information that helps them meet quality standards.
In this way they say British consumers can help to strengthen African
agriculture and produce better returns to African farmers.
This PAN Europe Newsletter was compiled by Sofia Parente
Contributions are welcome from PAN Europe network members, PURE
supporters and individuals.
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