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Editorial

UK regulation
Companies fail to meet reporting requirements 3
A central plank in the UK government’s strategy for monitoring the human health effects of pesticides is that companies report any adverse health outcomes which come to light once a product is approved and in use. PAN UK has recently discovered that companies have been failing to fulfil this legal obligation, raising serious concerns about the effectiveness of this process.

New right to know laws 4
On 1 January 2005, the right to know provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 came into force. These two pieces of legislation greatly increase our rights to access information held by public authorities in the UK. Knowing how to make use of these powerful new rights is an essential tool for anyone who campaigns for a better environment. Phil Michaels provides an overview.

Pesticides banned to protect Scotland’s birds 6
Pesticide poisoning has led to national and regional extinctions of a number of predatory birds in the UK. Keith Morton of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland, reports on new legislation which will strengthen their legal protection in Scotland.

Alternatives
Biocontrol at the Eden Project 7
The highly acclaimed Eden Project in South-West England has provided a challenge for staff involved in controlling pests in its three biomes. Most are managed using biological or other non-chemical methods. Katie Ling and Tim Pettitt describe some techniques used.

Urban pesticide exposure
Catalunya welcomes new era of urban pest control 8
More than 30 serious pesticide exposure incidents have taken place in public and private sector buildings in the Barcelona area since 1994, with over 250 workers adversely affected. None were directly involved in pesticide application but were exposed as a result of dangerous indoor fumigation practices for control of urban pests. Toni Oller Castello and Neus Moreno Saenz of Comisiones Obreras trade union describe how public agencies, workers and private companies are working together to tackle the problem.

GM debate
Argentina’s love affair with GM soya turns sour 10
Argentina is renowned for its wholehearted embrace of genetically modified seed technology, notably the widespread adoption of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soya beans. An important new report examines trends in soya bean expansion and highlights how reliance on a single crop, a single herbicide, and a single tillage method make the current production system inherently vulnerable. Stephanie Williamson summarises the key findings.

Alternatives
Locust upsurge allows environmentally safe control to be tested 12
An effective biological control for desert locusts has been developed by a research programme LUBILOSA led by CABI Bioscience. Brian Pettit and Nina Jenkins report on the recent testing of Green Muscle® and prospects for widescale future use.

Organic cotton
Greening cotton: farmers lose faith with chemicals 14
In 2002 and 2003 Meena Menon, a writer on development issues travelled through the cotton fields of Gujara, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. There she found farmers reverting to organic farming and rejecting the chemicals they had used over three decades. The suicide rate among poor farmers had increased and the land was becoming degraded. Can the resulting damage be arrested or even undone?

Alternatives
Heat treatment in pest control – the obvious alternative to toxic gases 16
Potentially lethal to humans, toxic gases have been used for many years to kill pests. But now food and timber industries across the world are looking to heat treatment as an effective and safer means of controlling insects. David Hammond, who developed the Thermokil heat treatment system, assesses the future of this method of control.

Latin American news 11

UK news 

US news 18

International news 19

Factsheet 20
Diuron
Diuron is a non-selective herbicide mainly used to control weeds on hard surfaces. Its principal breakdown product 3,4-dichloroaniline is more toxic than diuron itself. Two 'dioxin-like' compounds are present in diuron preparations as contaminants from the manufacturing process. The United States EPA classifies diuron as a 'known/likely' carcinogen. It is persistent and contaminates marine waters, groundwater, sediment and soil. Its use in Europe is being reviewed in 2005.

Book reviews and resources 22-23
The Pesticide Detox
The journey from current levels of dependence on pesticides to agricultural and public health systems that draw on safer and more sustainable pest management options is likely to be long and arduous. Christopher Stopes reviews a new book that provides the reasons to speed up this journey, the available tools, and the policy strategies needed to achieve this objective.