EU set to ban farmers from using ‘carcinogenic’ insecticide

Date: 20/07/2000

By Renée Cordes

THE European Commission is set to call for an EU-wide ban on the use of the controversial insecticide lindane in agriculture, amid concerns about its potentially harmful effects on human health and the environment.

A Commission spokesman said this week that the Union executive would formally adopt the measure when it returns from its summer recess, following a unanimous recommendation by national experts from the EU's 15 member states in the Commission's standing committee on plant health.

Once the measure has been adopted, Union countries will have to withdraw approval for new plant products containing lindane within six months, although they will be given a further 12 months to use up current stocks. However, the use of lindane for non-agricultural purposes will still be allowed, prompting criticism from some environmental groups that the Commission is not going far enough in limiting exposure to the dangerous substance.

Lindane is widely used as an insecticide in cereals and vegetable crops, although its use has declined gradually since the 1960s. The clamour for a ban has grown in the wake of studies which found it to be a carcinogen as well as a hormone-disrupting chemical, mimicking natural hormones and affecting the development, growth, reproduction and behaviour of animals and humans.

Pressure has been mounting on the EU executive to propose a Union-wide ban since an Austrian government study last year concluded that the substance was a possible carcinogen and that there was no safe exposure level. That report recommended that "lindane should be suspended from the market until a final assessment of the required data is possible and performed". Since then, some member states such as Denmark and Sweden have introduced their own bans.

Environmental groups argue that while an EU-wide embargo would be a step in the right direction, they remain concerned about public exposure to lindane when it is used for non-agricultural purposes - for example, to treat timber for insects and control ants in homes and gardens. "This pesticide was developed in the 1940s when cheap and relatively hazardous substances were considered acceptable," said David Buffin, a spokesman for Pesticides Action Network UK. "It should have no place in the 21st century."

The European Commission is set to call for an EU-wide ban on the use of the controversial insecticide lindane in agriculture, amid concerns about its potentially harmful effects on human health and the environment.