Home > Press releases > 2000

Making life better for people by inspiring solutions to environmental problems

2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994

CADBURY'S ADMIT: YES, THERE IS LINDANE IN OUR CHOC

17 Jun 2000

A major manufacturer admitted for the first time today that their chocolate could contain residues of the dangerous pesticide Lindane. Friends of the Earth released a letter from Cadbury's today admitting that Lindane residues are found in chocolate but claiming that these residues pose no threat to health. FOE released the letter as part of its "Real Food Week", demanding that major food manufacturers and retailers remove pesticide residues from their products.

The letter, dated 3rd February 2000, says that "Lindane is used to prevent cocoa trees from being attacked by the capsid bug, and small traces of this chemical may be detected as residues in the bean. Such residues are reduced during the processing of the bean and minute traces of Lindane have been found in finished chocolate products ... Cadbury's is totally confident that the minute traces of Lindane found in chocolate pose absolutely no risk to health." [Full copy of the letter available from FOE Press Office]

But Lindane has already been banned or severely restricted in many other countries [1] because of its persistence in the environment and its suspected health effects. In December 1998 an Austrian report to the EU recommended that lindane be suspended across Europe [2]. The report said there was no safe limit and listed several health effects linked to lindane including breast cancer, birth defects and damage to the nervous system. [3].

Last month leading DIY stores [4] said that they will stop selling lindane-based products. Supermarkets are also taking action ahead of any Government ban. Last month the Co-op,
the UK's biggest farmer, announced that it has banned lindane spraying on its own farms. Waitrose has told its fruit and vegetable suppliers not to use the pesticide and is investigating its use on other crops with a view to banning it completely.

Commenting, FOE Real Food Campaigner Sandra Bell said:

[1] Countries that have banned lindane include Denmark, Germany, Holland and Sweden.

[2] Report for the EU by the Austrian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, December 1998. The report found that it was not possible to set a safe level of exposure for lindane and recommend a total ban. Faced with this information the UK Government decided to ban the use of lindane for seed treatment but did not ban its use on crops in the UK or in domestic products.

[3] Pesticide Usage Survey Reports between 1994 and 1997 show that an average of 41 tonnes of lindane is applied to UK crops in a year. The latest figures to be published show that in 1998 16.8 tonnes of lindane were used on arable crops alone, not including seed treatments.

[4] Robert Dyas, Homebase, Wilkinson, B&Q and Boots all told the Campaign to Ban Lindane that they will stop selling lindane-based products.

We will have local actions by over 80 groups in the following counties:

Avon, Beds, Berks, Bucks, Carmarthenshire, Cheshire, Cornwall, County Durham, Cumbria, Devon, Dorset, Essex, Gloucs, Hants, Herts, Kent, Lancs, Leics, Lincs, London, Merseyside, Notts, Newcastle, Norfolk, Oxon, Salops, S. Gloucs. S. Glamorgan Surrey, Warks, W. Midlands, Wilts, Worcs, Yorkshire.

[NB: 5 groups have already done actions but are available for stories, pictures and comment: Chinnor and Thame, Aylesbury Vale, Hackney, North Lancashire and Nuneaton]

Groups will ask customers to challenge their supermarket to provide them with real food (Supermarket challenge action). Many groups will also help shoppers find where they can buy local, fair-trade or organic food in the town and surrounding area (we call this an "our town is a supermarket" action).

We have an ISDN LINE for interviews.

We have offices and experts in every English Region, in Wales and in Northern Ireland