Editorial - Pesticides News No. 22

Consumer voice UK food residue panel

Peter Beaumont of the Pesticides Trust [now PAN UK] has been appointed to the UK’s Working Party on Pesticide Residues (WPPR), as a consumer representative. The WPPR, which is organised by the Ministry of Agriculture, reports to the Steering Group on Chemical Aspects of Food Surveillance, and to the Advisory Committee on Pesticides. The latest WPPR annual report is expected shortly, and includes national pesticide residue analysis data carried out over the previous year. Peter attended his first WPPR meeting on 20 October 1993, and we will be consulting shortly with interested non-governmental organisations regarding ways to provide a conduit for consumer concerns about pesticides in food. We will shortly run a feature of the WPPR in Pesticides News.

The water debate

The debate of pesticide residues in European water, covered widely in this issue, is a subject which is set to run and run, (or perhaps drip). The question centres on whether the European Union (until recently the European Community) will change drinking water standards for pesticide residues from a quasi-zero to higher, scientifically-based levels, in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) standards. The European Commission is said to be considering the issue and will announce its decision shortly. Environmentalists say that pesticides have no business being in water and the agrochemical industry says that, the financial cost to achieve this is too high, and this, in their view, would provide no additional health or environmental benefit. As we go to press, the environmental group Greenpeace is voicing concerns that the European Commission  has already decided on this issue. They say that the Working Party on Agricultural Questions at the Council of the European Union is already working on the assumption that WHO-type standards will be adopted.

Current research

Current Research Monitor which accompanies Pesticides News is being expanded to cover more details of conferences and meetings which address the implications of pesticides and the wider aspirations of sustainable agriculture. For example, the current issue focuses on the recent British Crop Protection Council conference on weeds at Brighton,which includes recent up-dates on the environmental affects of pesticides and new approaches to pest control.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 22, December 1993, page 2]