New EU pesticides law not ideal for farmers

12.00.00am GMT Tue 13th Jan 2009

The European Parliament adopted today a new EU law which could take up to 25 toxic pesticides off the market. The proposals however would ban various plant protection products that East Midland farmers use to prevent diseases.

Bill Newton Dunn, MEP for the East Midlands voted against, at the request of local farmers, but was on the loosing side. Speaking from Strasbourg after the vote Bill Newton Dunn said:

"Protecting the environment and ensuring that hazardous chemicals do not endanger either the population or local wildlife certainly is of fundamental importance. But the legislation we have passed today was not subject to a proper impact assessment. If it had been, I am sure it would have shown that in a number of cases it could lead to more damage to human health and not less. However, adopting these badly drafted measures as they currently stand could damage both arable farming and the horticultural sector across the East Midlands and elsewhere. Certain pesticides are necessary to combat diseases associated with wet weather in the East Midlands."

The measure introduces prohibitions on the use by farmers of chemicals that pose risks to human health and the environment because they are mutagenic, carcinogenic or toxic to reproduction. It is expected to ban 4% of all pesticides and herbicides currently in use, including persistent bioaccumulative and toxic substances that, like DDT a generation ago, can lead to an accumulation of chemicals in the bodies of humans, birds and insects.

British farmers are worried in particular that the new law will make it more difficult to grow peas in damp conditions, while their French neighbours have concerns that producing apples without skin blemishes will become harder.

With the number of bees in steep decline the new law requires special assessments of products that could affect the exposure of bees to pesticides, in particular through nectar and pollen. This new law will also stimulate research and the development of safer alternatives that simply would not happen if no controls were introduced

Pesticides will only have to be withdrawn from the market when their current authorisation comes to an end, which in most cases is not expected before 2013.