Going further can be achieved in a variety
of ways such as disallowing use of certain pesticides because of their hazards
to health or the environment, or requiring that non-chemical pest control
methods are tried before chemicals are resorted to.
Bristol City Council adopted their policy in 1993. Its two
first stated aims are:
To reduce to a minimum pesticide usage whilst maintaining control of pests;
To adopt, where possible, non-chemical alternatives to pesticides;
Only then is Bristol prepared to consider
using chemical pesticides “which pose the least risk.”
Implementation of Bristol’s policy
began long before it was even adopted by the Council. A list of pesticides in
use by council departments was compiled, information on these and other
chemicals and alternative control methods was collected, and a Pesticides
Working Group formed which makes recommendations on which chemicals should and
which should not be used.
Avon County Council has entitled its draft policy a ‘Pest
Management Policy’ rather than a Pesticides Policy. This reflects the attitude
that the policy is not only for ensuring that pesticides are used legally and
safely, but that pesticides themselves are just part of a wider strategy for
managing pest problems. Like Bristol, Avon has put a strong emphasis on
considering non-chemical controls before resorting to chemical pesticides. Avon
has also specified that pesticides which appear on the UK Red List and the EC
Black lists of chemicals with a high potential for contaminating water, should
not be used by the Council. Similarly the draft policy states that the Council
will adopt a precautionary approach in rejecting pesticides classified by a
variety of agencies as posing unacceptable risks to human health or the
environment.
Leicester City Council’s Chemical Action Plan of February
1992 also rejects the use of red list or black list chemicals by the Council.
The action plan requires that pesticides which were in use before the Control of
Pesticides Regulations were adopted in 1986 must have been through a government
review process before the Council will agree to their use.
Several other UK local authorities are in the process of
addressing, or have already addressed, their use of pesticides to some extent.
In some cases policies controlling certain aspects of pesticide use such as
herbicides on road verges have been adopted. Elsewhere, the use of pesticides
has been addressed as part of a broader environmental strategy.
A survey of metropolitan councils demonstrated that officers
were keen to have corporate policies in place which would help them in making
decisions on strategies for controlling pests. Similarly, water companies which
are struggling to keep pesticide levels in water below the regulatory limits are
encouraging councils in their catchment areas to adopt policies which aim to
reduce their input of pesticides to the environment. (MD)
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 23, March 1994, page 17]