- Apples, corn, wheat, and sugar beets
are commonly sprayed with Lindane.
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- "...it (Lindane) causes behavioural
changes, damage to the nervous and immune systems, and birth defects."
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- The UK Government is being urged to withdraw
a widely-used pesticide from sale with immediate effect.
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- The chemical is lindane, which is used
to kill insects on crops and in timber.
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- The call to ban it comes from Friends
of the Earth, the Pesticides Trust, the Women's Environmental Network,
and the trade union Unison.
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- All four have written to the Agriculture
Minister, Jeff Rooker, and his environment counterpart, Michael Meacher,
asking them to order an immediate halt to sales.
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- They base their demand on a confidential
leaked European Union report, which has been seen by reporters on the BBC's
Newsnight programme, which recommends an end to sales of lindane.
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- The report, prepared by Austria's agriculture
ministry, was sent to Brussels in December, but the EU has yet to take
any action on it.
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- Gaps in knowledge
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- The Austrian report says lindane is a
possibly carcinogenic substance, and not enough is known about it.
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- It also describes the chemical as an
endocrine disrupter, and says it causes behavioural changes, damage to
the nervous and immune systems, and birth defects.
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- For carcinogenicity, hormone disruption,
behavioural change and immunotoxicity, the report says the data - obtained
from tests on rats and mice - is scarce.
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- It says not enough is known to establish
clearly either a "no observed effect level" (NOEL), or a "no
observed adverse effect level" (NOAEL).
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- The Austrians say not enough about whether
birds and small mammals feeding on seeds treated with lindane could be
at risk.
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- But a study of fish showed very high
lindane levels, which implied the chemical had accumulated through the
food chain.
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- Relic of a less demanding age
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- David Buffin, of the Pesticides Trust,
says: "It is surprising to see how little adequate data supports the
continued approval of lindane.
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- "But it was a pesticide developed
in the 1940s, at a time when far less attention was paid to detailed experimentation
required to prove a chemical was safe."
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- Lindane is sold in Britain for treating
seeds and wood, and is also used as a crop spray.
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- Oilseed rape, apples, sugar beet, wheat,
and maize are treated with it.
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- Lindane is also sometimes used on rough
grazing, and in grain stores.
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- The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries
and Food (MAFF) says 100,000 kg were used in the UK in 1997.
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- The four groups calling for a ban say
it is still possible for EU member countries to outlaw chemicals like lindane
on a national basis.
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- Lindane is banned already in two EU states,
Sweden and Denmark.
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- But the Health and Safety Executive (HSE),
which is responsible for licensing the chemical for some uses, says national
bans are not possible.
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- Evidence not conclusive
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- It also says they might not be much use,
because goods treated with lindane could still enter Britain from countries
which had not banned it.
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- The HSE and the MAFF both reviewed lindane
in 1996 and found insufficient evidence to ban it.
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- An HSE spokeswoman told BBC News Online:
"We are comfortable with its use."
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