Newsletter
- Home >
- News & Events >
- News >
- Natural Resources news >
- Archive >
- 2003 >
- UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide
- 2003
- 10 reasons supermarket mergers are bad for consumers, farmers and small businesses
- Asda spinach over pesticide levels
- Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole
- Biting back at GM crops
- Blair sacks Meacher
- Committee Stage for Recycling Bill
- Cornwall goes GM-free
- Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread
- Cumbria goes GM-free
- Deplorable attack on GM scientific critic
- Devon votes to go GM-free
- Dorset demands caution over GM crops
- EU commission calls for GM contamination of organic food to be allowed
- EU meets US over GM trade war
- Farmers and consumers must have a say in Wal-Mart takeover
- Fat cats fight over Safeway, consumers and farmers are real losers
- Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense
- Garden pesticides health warning
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM beet research answers very few questions
- GM contamination - Government experts disagree
- GM jury challenges FSA policy on labelling
- GM public debate fiasco
- GM study highlights need for urgent rethink over GM crops
- GM trade war - who decides what we eat?
- GM trade war accelerates
- GM won't cure hunger in Africa
- GM-free food could be "impossible"
- Government agrees to delay GM debate
- Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report
- Government launches GM debate
- Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops
- Government must address GM debate chaos say groups
- Government must clarify role of GM debate
- Government opposes tough Euro GM rules
- Government report on economics of GM crops
- Government to publish GM science review
- Government urges MEPs to vote for GM food
- Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat
- Hundreds of pesticides banned
- Hundreds turn out for Waste lobby
- Illegal GM contamination threat
- Is Tesco spin on Safeway takeover a joke?
- Lake District National Park first to go GM-free
- Lake District National Park to host GM debate
- Local campaigners call for GM-free Britain election pledge
- MEPs back tougher GM labels
- Ministers try to stop GM food labels
- Morrisons take-over bad news for consumers
- MPs call for extension to GM national debate
- New analysis casts doubt on GM farm scale evaluations
- New maps reveal massive extent of GM pollution threat
- Pesticide review fails consumers and farmers
- Recycling Bill clears the Commons
- Safeway decision must wait for code review
- Sainsbury's: making life taste bitter for banana growers
- Scepticism as GM debate ends
- Second reading for Recycling Bill
- Shameful EU plans for growing GM crops
- Shropshire goes gm-free
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- South Gloucestershire votes to go GM-free
- South Hams votes to go GM-free
- Stop Safeway stitch-up, alliance demands
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarkets continue to shun GM food
- Supermarkets must be blocked from Safeway takeover
- The US ghost fleet – behind the hype
- UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide
- UN treaty regulating GM to become law
- Uncertainty over GM safety
- US files WTO GM complaint
- US threat over GM food
- Warwickshire goes GM-free
- Why the Safeway take-over must be stopped
UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide19 March 2003
The highly toxic pesticide aldicarb will continue to be used on vegetables in the UK following a decision by European farm ministers. Friends of the Earth learned that UK Agriculture Minister Lord Whitty voted in favour of the compromise position which allows eight member states including the UK to continue using aldicarb on some vegetable crops for so-called "essential use".
Aldicarb is used to kill insects and nematodes on crops. It is a highly toxic pesticide and is classified by the World Health Organisation as "extremely hazardous". It works on the nervous system in a similar way to organophosphates. Residues of aldicarb have been found in food exceeding safety levels for young children.
The decision makes a mockery of the EU review of pesticides, which states that "essential use" should not be granted if the substance has harmful effects on human or animal health and should only be allowed where no efficient alternatives exist.
In the UK aldicarb will continue to be authorised for use on potatoes, parsnips, carrots, onions and 'ornamentals' (decorative plants). The "essential use" status was because it was argued that alternatives are not available. However well known alternatives include other chemical control methods and changes in farming methods, such as crop rotation, and using diverse vegetable varieties.
Residues can be reduced by peeling potatoes rather than eating them in their skins, but the Government withdrew advice on peeling fruit and vegetables last year. Aldicarb was recently found in samples of chips from fish and chip shops. Aldicarb is also potentially very harmful to farmland wildlife. It is estimated that one granule is enough to kill a small bird.
The decision is good news for pesticide company Bayer who have been promoting their aldicarb-based product 'Temik' with full page adverts in the farming press.
"The review of aldicarb has been going on for years. The Government should have used this time to ensure that safe non-chemical means of pest and disease control were available to farmers," said Friends of the Earth's Real Food Campaigner, Sandra Bell.
Get these updates first
If you would like these news updates to be emailed to you as soon as they come out, then join our real food mailing list.
Register Here
Discuss "UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide" in our forum