Farmers in France are winning court cases on illnesses caused by the
use of pesticides. Long a taboo subject within the farming community,
they are speaking increasingly openly about this potentially lethal
pollution, says Claire Le Nestour.
Read article at euractiv.com
Showing posts with label farmers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farmers. Show all posts
Friday, 8 June 2012
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
“Growing evidence” of a link between pesticides and Parkinson’s.
The Telegraph reports that using pesticides in your job increases your risk of developing Parkinson's. Thus gardeners and farmers are three times as likely to get this illness.
Sunday, 24 June 2007
If you are a frequent flyer you may be interested to read here about poisons in the air supply on planes
Christopher Booker's notebook - Sunday Telegraph
See the first part: "Pilots disabled by poisoned air"
Extract:
"The essence of the problem is that the air supply to the cockpits and cabins of many modern airliners is bled off from their engines, where it becomes contaminated with carcinogens, immunosuppressants and highly toxic organo-phosphorus (OP) chemicals, especially a compound known as tricresyl phosphate (TCP) used as an anti-wear additive. Both crew and passengers are thus exposed to small amounts of OPs and a cocktail of other nasties. OPs, more commonly used as pesticides, cumulatively attack the nervous system, causing disorders ranging from nausea, headaches and dizziness to, eventually, serious mental and physical breakdown.
Although this problem was first identified 30 years ago, following a near-fatal incident in the US, it was kept so quiet that when hundreds of pilots in the 1980s began to experience adverse reactions they had no idea why. One of the first to track down the cause was Susan Michaelis, flying BA146s in Australia, when in 1997 she was permanently grounded by severe illness. Two years later, at her instigation, an official inquiry by the Australian Senate heard enough expert evidence to confirm that the cause of so many pilots and cabin crew suffering ill-health was contamination of cabin air by TCP and other chemicals.
In 2001 the cause was taken up in Britain by Captain Loraine, a senior member of the British Air Line Pilots Association (BALPA), who flew Boeing 757s. But from the industry and regulators, such as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), they met with a wall of denials. Although more pilots were suffering from "aerotoxic syndrome" every year, there began a cover-up which uncannily parallelled the methods used by government in the 1990s when the health of thousands of farmers was destroyed by OPs in sheep dip."
See the first part: "Pilots disabled by poisoned air"
Extract:
"The essence of the problem is that the air supply to the cockpits and cabins of many modern airliners is bled off from their engines, where it becomes contaminated with carcinogens, immunosuppressants and highly toxic organo-phosphorus (OP) chemicals, especially a compound known as tricresyl phosphate (TCP) used as an anti-wear additive. Both crew and passengers are thus exposed to small amounts of OPs and a cocktail of other nasties. OPs, more commonly used as pesticides, cumulatively attack the nervous system, causing disorders ranging from nausea, headaches and dizziness to, eventually, serious mental and physical breakdown.
Although this problem was first identified 30 years ago, following a near-fatal incident in the US, it was kept so quiet that when hundreds of pilots in the 1980s began to experience adverse reactions they had no idea why. One of the first to track down the cause was Susan Michaelis, flying BA146s in Australia, when in 1997 she was permanently grounded by severe illness. Two years later, at her instigation, an official inquiry by the Australian Senate heard enough expert evidence to confirm that the cause of so many pilots and cabin crew suffering ill-health was contamination of cabin air by TCP and other chemicals.
In 2001 the cause was taken up in Britain by Captain Loraine, a senior member of the British Air Line Pilots Association (BALPA), who flew Boeing 757s. But from the industry and regulators, such as the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), they met with a wall of denials. Although more pilots were suffering from "aerotoxic syndrome" every year, there began a cover-up which uncannily parallelled the methods used by government in the 1990s when the health of thousands of farmers was destroyed by OPs in sheep dip."
Sunday, 22 April 2007
Prince Charles criticises Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and its handling of agricultural policies.
Farmers 'let down' by ministers, says Charles - Sunday Telegraph
Extracts:
"The Government is jeopardising Britain's rural communities by failing to give proper support to farmers, says the Prince of Wales.
The "guardians of our countryside" have been let down and face a bleak future, he says in a veiled attack on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and its handling of agricultural policies.
In a letter to a farming charity, he said farmers were enduring "some of the toughest times in living memory" because of the fiasco over missing subsidy payments that has left many facing ruin."
"More than 116,000 farmers across the country were supposed to have received their subsidies by mid-2006. By February this year, however, 25,000 cases were still under review, with the sums involved ranging from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands. About 10,000 farmers have not yet received anything.
This has cost debt-ridden farmers big sums in bank interest, and contributed to a huge rise in the numbers struggling to survive. Calls to the Farm Crisis Network from farmers asking for financial and psychiatric help rose by 60 per cent last year to the highest level since the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001."
Defra has been one of the government's more spectacularly poorly performing departments...)o: - The Department of Health is the worst...)o:
Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)
Extracts:
"The Government is jeopardising Britain's rural communities by failing to give proper support to farmers, says the Prince of Wales.
The "guardians of our countryside" have been let down and face a bleak future, he says in a veiled attack on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and its handling of agricultural policies.
In a letter to a farming charity, he said farmers were enduring "some of the toughest times in living memory" because of the fiasco over missing subsidy payments that has left many facing ruin."
"More than 116,000 farmers across the country were supposed to have received their subsidies by mid-2006. By February this year, however, 25,000 cases were still under review, with the sums involved ranging from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands. About 10,000 farmers have not yet received anything.
This has cost debt-ridden farmers big sums in bank interest, and contributed to a huge rise in the numbers struggling to survive. Calls to the Farm Crisis Network from farmers asking for financial and psychiatric help rose by 60 per cent last year to the highest level since the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001."
Defra has been one of the government's more spectacularly poorly performing departments...)o: - The Department of Health is the worst...)o:
Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)
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