Persistent sheep dip lady
- An interview with the Countess of Mar

Margaret Mar became a campaigner against the excessive use of pesticides after she fell victim to organophosphate sheep dip poisoning. Her position as a hereditary peer in the House of Lords, Britain's upper legislative chamber, provides a privileged platform on which to instigate change. She discussed with David Buffin what policy initiatives are required to improve the health and safety of those using these chemicals.

How did you become ill?
We had our first flock of sheep in 1986 and I used to help with the sheep dipping. I would actually dunk the sheep in the dip, and only in retrospect did I realise that I had what is known as 'dipping flu' each time we dipped. This meant having a runny nose, a tight chest and a cough, but it used to disappear in 24 to 48 hours, and I did not think any more of it, I certainly did not associate it with dipping. In 1989, I accidentally spilt some dip in my wellington boot. My husband had mixed the concentrate and I had not read the instructions, I did not realise that I should have rushed into the house, taken off my boots and socks, disposed of my boots and had a good wash. I went on until I finished dipping-by lunch time I had flu-like symptoms and felt very unwell.
    A friend of ours came to use our dip for her sheep in the afternoon, but by this time I was unable to help her. And again, the ill-effects went after 48 hours. About three weeks later I got up in the morning, to find I was too tired to go out and help around the farm-I had to go back to bed. I then spent nearly a year just going between the bed and the settee, and perhaps doing something for half an hour. I could not concentrate, was not able to read, nor absorb what I had read, and developed strange muscle aches. I had my eye sight tested eight times in three months because the focus kept changing. My optician could not understand the reason (he has since seen some of the papers on OPs and eye damage). I lost about two stones (12kg) in two months.
    It was not until I found a complementary medical practitioner that I began to realise what was happening. She told me my liver had been poisoned. Later I read an article on dipping flu which linked ill-effects to OP exposure, and I asked her whether she thought there was any connection. She tested my exposure to the dip and it was clear I had become sensitised to OPs.
    Later we looked over my history: I had also had problems with dichlorvos in fly strips, and exposure to Metasystox (demeton-S-methyl) during sugar beet spraying-both of these are OPs. I noticed subsequently whenever I went to a livestock market or an agricultural show I was ill afterwards because there were sheep that had been dipped. By that time I was so sensitive I could smell sheep dip in the wind about a mile away. For example when neighbours had been dipping sheep, I felt adverse effects.

What did you do about this?
In June 1992 I asked a parliamentary question to find how many people had reported suspect adverse reactions to sheep dips. In the autumn, I saw a film called Wolf in Sheep's Clothing which mentioned Liz Sigmund of the OP Information Network (OPIN) and a number of others who were working on the sheep dip problem. I got in touch with them. Since then I have asked literally hundreds of questions in the House of Lords on the topic and am now known as 'the Sheep Dip Lady'. When I first started asking questions, there would be much sighing in the House of Lords. But now I am complimented. People say "You are on the right track, keep going!" So there has been a complete change and it is wonderful to feel the support.

What do you think are the most important changes required to reduce the risks from OPs?
There are now alternatives to OP sheep dips and I think that good stockmanship is vitally important. If you have scab in your sheep, you must catch it immediately. One of the big difficulties with sheep farming these days is the shortage of labour. The profit-margins are very narrow. In the past a shepherd stayed with the flock the whole time, it was fine. But now, upland sheep are put out on the hills and only brought down for shearing and dipping and lambing, which can lead to a build up of ectoparasitic problems.
    I would advise extreme caution because it is not just the farmers who are affected by OPs-it is also people in markets and people handling the wool. It is no good saying that OPs do not remain in these products for very long-they do- and as a result, people can become affected.
    If people are determined to use OPs then I think they should develop a test to see whether operators can withstand their use.

So you think there are people who can dip and those who can't?
Margaret Mar became a campaigner against the excessive use of pesticides after she fell victim to organophosphate sheep dip poisoning. Her position as a hereditary peer in the House of Lords, Britain's upper legislative chamber, provides a privileged platform on which to instigate change. She discussed with David Buffin what policy initiatives are required to improve the health and safety of those using these chemicals.

Do you think therefore that OP sheep dips should be banned?
I think certainly that there should be a moratorium on OP use until we know more about their effects and synergies. There are enough alternatives in the armoury now to control sheep ectoparasites successfully.
    The stupid thing is that we got rid of sheep scab in the 1950s by policing and making sure that every sheep was dipped. It was only in the 1970s that the problem was re-introduced when a flock with sheep scab was imported from Ireland onto the Yorkshire/Lancashire Borders. MAFF officials supervised the dipping, but did not check that a scab-proof dip was used. The government says it is too expensive now to have the village constable supervising and getting everybody to dip simultaneously.

Should OPs in general be banned?
I do not think that OPs should ever be used in domestic situations, particularly around young children. So that cuts out fly sprays, fly strips, dog and cat flea collars, cockroach treatments. During this sort of use, people are in their homes, they are breathing the OP all the time. I would also be very cautious about using them in gardens. People who do use OPs should be fully trained and clearly warned about the problems.
    I think we are looking at a severe restriction on OPs. They should be treated like prescription-only medicines. There is an EU Directive saying this should happen, and Professor Zuckerman suggested similar action be adopted in the UK way back in the 1950s.

Do you think that the treatment of OP sufferers is adequate? If not, what should be done?
Very few OP sufferers receive any treatment at all. The Department of Health advises symptomatic treatment. But sufferers do not respond normally to drugs. My own experience, after a recent attack of pleurisy and pneumonia, is that I had three times the normal dose of antibiotics.
    Sufferers do not respond to the pyschotrophic drugs that affect the mental state, but some respond better to homeopathic drugs. Others have very bizarre responses to standard treatment such as anxiety and depression. From a personal point of view environmental medicine has helped me tremendously. The objectives are to boost your immune system and to help you to detoxify. My life is 200% better than it was two years ago. I am sure this treatment would be of benefit to many exposed sufferers. It is unfortunate that environmental medicine is not recognised by most conventional practitioners, and it is extremely difficult to get National Health Service referrals. There needs to be more research to prove the effectiveness of environmental medicine

There is new evidence that the OP phosmet may be linked to BSE. Is this the first step to proving Mark Purdey's* theory?
Mark Purdey has had some research done in vitro on the effect phosmet has on the prion protein. I am eager to see research done in vivo to prove it one or the other once and for all. Otherwise, I think it is extremely unfair to Mark. I have a strong feeling that his theory has some foundation though it is not the whole answer. There may be a combination of factors. We will not know until the experiments have been done. This is one of my next objectives.

Recent evidence has established a link between exposure to OPs (plus other chemicals) and Gulf War Syndrome. What do you think the government should be doing to help the veterans who are suffering?
Once again, it comes down to recognition, treatment and prevention. What we are looking at both with sheep dip sufferers and the Gulf veterans is a 'new disease'. With the Gulf veterans there were so many factors involved. The government is trying to hang it on known disease, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder, in other words, saying that it is all psychological. Instead of doing epidemiological studies, they need to conduct research on classical clinical grounds. They must start with a hypothesis. In the case of the Gulf veterans they were exposed to NAPs tablets (pyridostigmine bromide), all the vaccinations (and we do not know all of these); pesticides; chemical weapons, oil-well fires and depleted uranium. There is also the change in climate.
    What effect do these elements have on their own and in combination? How do they affect the immune, endocrine and nervous systems? What impact do they have on the body's major organs? When you have all this information you examine how the veterans fit the pattern. Then you do your epidemiology, because you have something to measure against and can verify that some veterans were affected by vaccines only, and some by the pesticides only, and some by a combination of these things.

This has also been an issue in the US, have they handled it differently?
The US Freedom of Information Act has provided better information. But the US still denies that chemical weapons were used-I have my sources and I know they were used. Until the governments admit to everything to which the troops may have been exposed, you are not going to have appropriate results from the research. Medical practitioners treating veterans cannot be effective as they do not know the full extent of chemical exposure-and veterans will continue to suffer.
    Veterans are also being denied their war pensions because the War Pensions Branch is looking at every individual symptom. Recently I had a letter from a former medic who has had 24 medical examinations-and still has not had his war pension sorted out. That is a disgraceful way to treat people who have served their country.

Do you think that the government has a good idea of what volume of pesticides was used in the Gulf?
I do not think that the ministers knew, but I think the officials at the Ministries of Defence and Health knew, and Porton Down knew exactly what was being used. The officials have failed all along to listen to the veterans on the ground who were dealing with the equipment. They measured the amount of pesticides used in the Gulf. The officials at the Ministry of Defence have not listened and now the 'higher ups' in the Army all seem to be suffering from collective amnesia.

How effective is the parliamentary process, especially in light of your position in the House of Lords?
It is slow, painfully slow-but I am very persistent. I have a privileged position which I am very honoured to hold. I sometimes think I was sent OP poisoning for a purpose. As I am an independent Peer I do not ask parliamentary questions simply to score political points. What I want is information and to help OP sufferers but it is very clear that the ministers do not know all the answers.

How effective are OP victims groups in changing things for the better?
They are becoming more effective. Initially, they were diverse and easier to ignore. With support from myself and MPs we are becoming more effective. We would be absolutely impotent without the information supplied by these groups. They are instrumental in helping us to do what were doing. These are people beavering away working on different issues.
    I have the ear of the ministers and I have become a sort of catalyst.

Do you think the European Commission has an adequate policy for dealing with the OP issue?
I think that Europe could very well have a role to play but has dragged its feet, and we have also been slow in getting Europe to wake up to the OP issue. I sit on the Environment, Public Health and Consumers Affairs Select Committee in the House of Lords. It was not until I went to Brussels two years ago that I realised how useful they could be. We have also made contact with OP suffers in Spain and France and I think now there is much more coming into the open.

What are your main concerns for the future?
My main concern is not only for the people suffering now, but for our children and our grandchildren. We must remember that children are very much more vulnerable to these chemicals, the central nervous system is not fully developed, and I cannot help but feel many of the problems that are being experienced with young in some cases have their roots in exposure to OPs.children, such as emotional problems, may
    In the case of my illness, it was three years before I discovered what it was. Conventional medicine still does not recognise OP poisoning from low level exposure as being a cause of illness-my battle is to get that recognised, to get some sort of treatment, and to prevent future damage being done to people.  

Margaret, Countess of Mar is an independent peer in the House of Lords and farms organically on her family farm in Worcestershire.

* Organic farmer Mark Purdey claims that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, is caused by the use of a particular OP insecticide rather than by infected cattle feed. The OP phosmet has been widely used to control the warble fly in cattle herds heavily affected by BSE. Mr Purdey's theory is that phosmet interferes with the prion protein. This protein is present in all cells, but in BSE animals it takes on a distorted and indestructible form, which gradually builds up and destroys the brain. Mr Purdey cites recent work carried out at the Institute of Psychiatry in London which he says supports his claims. It suggests that Phosmet has a dramatic effect on the way prion protein is distributed in the cells. (NB: Phosmet is not used in sheep dip.)

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 35, March 1997, pages 5-6]