Fears over use of untested pesticides

ALMOST 850 potentially cancer-causing pesticides have yet to be tested and are still being used without the necessary precautions, the EU’s Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner has warned.

About 450 pesticides have been banned in recent years because they cause cancer, sterility and birth defects in humans and affect animals and the environment.

But of the 1,000 remaining on the market only 150 have been given the all-clear and the rest are waiting for testing to be completed.

The commissioner is proposing new rules to regulate the use of pesticides that would virtually ban aerial spraying and make farmers keep a record of their use.

The new rules are aimed at protecting people who come in direct contact with pesticides when they are being manufactured, stored or applied and with those indirectly exposed through spray drift and residues in fruit, vegetables or water.

“Long-term exposure to pesticides can lead to serious disturbances to the immune system, sexual disorders, cancers, sterility, birth defects, damage to the nervous system and genetic damage,” Commissioner Marcos Kyprianou said.

Despite a raft of policies and legislation on pesticides there has been no decrease in their use over the past 10 years.

Under the proposals member states would set up national action plans to reduce the dangers of and dependence on pesticides.