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Editorial

Residues
The hidden extras – residues in UK food 3
UK consumers are concerned about the health implications of pesticide residues in food. PAN UK now publishes information on which foods contain which residues and what can be done to avoid them. Clare Butler Ellis describes the new resources..

Politics and health
What’s behind the ‘DDT comeback’? 4
The World Health Organisation’s recent announcement of support to reintroduce DDT for malaria control has attracted the attention of the world media. Kristin Schafer of PAN North America examines the means and motives behind the underlying campaign.

Doctors seek stronger chemical regulation to prevent cancer 10
Testicular cancer, childhood cancers, congenital malformations, neurodevelopmental disorders and sterility have all become more common in the past 20 years. With evidence that man-made chemicals
are contributing to this rapid growth in serious health problems, a powerful alliance of doctors and scientists is calling for more effective European regulation of chemicals. Génon Jensen reports.

Scientists calls for more analysis of pesticide impacts in Africa 11

Latin America
The social costs of soya  6
The massive expansion of industrial scale soya cultivation in South America in the last decade has been criticised mainly for its environmental impacts, encroaching on primary forest and grasslands and harming wildlife. However, away from the eyes of the global media, the social and economic assault on the livelihoods of peasant farmers is equally dramatic. Javiera Rulli reports on the situation in Paraguay.

IPM – what difference does it make? 8
The questions everyone wants to answer when discussing projects which aim to reduce pesticide use are: What was the impact? Did pesticide use change, and if so how, and why? Or put another way, it is important to know ‘What difference did the project make?’ Catrin Meir and Myriam Paredes describe some of the factors influencing the success of Integrated Pest Management projects in Nicaragua.

Rachel Carson Memorial Lecture
From harvest to high street 12
The sustainability of cotton production has become a talking point with several high profile initiatives being set up to address it. From humble beginnings organic cotton projects are now starting to bear fruit. Organic clothing is no longer confined to niche markets as demand on the high street now outstrips supply. In this year’s Rachel Carson Memorial Lecture, Camilla Toulmin describes the positive
impacts these initiatives could have on real lives in West Africa.

Cotton
Living with poison - pesticides in West African cotton growing 17
The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests that there are approximately three million pesticide poisonings a year, resulting in 20,000 unintentional deaths, largely in developing countries or among the rural poor. However, a new publication from PAN UK documents findings from a study of pesticide use in five West African countries. This identified the levels of poisonings associated with cotton production suggesting that most poisonings go unrecorded.

Food and Fairness
Senegalese farmers visit Europe 20
PAN UK’s Food and Fairness project provides a channel for African farmers to voice their concerns to the European food sector and consumers, and to exchange experiences with European farmers. To this end, a group of five Senegalese horticulture growers visited Germany, the Netherlands and UK in July 2006. Stephanie Williamson reports on what they saw and the lessons they took back.

News 23
PAN UK Director
Eight dangerous pesticides banned or restricted in Europe