Organisers of the campaign to ban lindane have persuaded the Co-Op to stop using the chemical. All the farmers who supply the Co-Operative Wholesale Society have had a letter asking them not to use lindane as a treatment on any produce sold in Co-Op stores.
CWS Farms, the country’s biggest farmer which runs more than 85,000 acres, said it would extend the existing ban on seed treatment to cover everything. Five other retailers – Boots, Robert Dyas, Homebase, B&Q and Wilkinson – had already said they would no longer sell lindane.
In late February, the campaign – which is run by PAN UK, the Soil Association, UNISON, the public service union, Friends of the Earth, the Women’s Environment Network, Green Network and Breast, which represents women with breast cancer – moved to the Ministry of Agriculture’s premises in York where the Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP) was due to look at more evidence on lindane.
In February, the ACP released its full evaluation of lindane. This confirmed its earlier advice to agriculture Ministers that workers were exposed to unacceptable levels of lindane during seed treatment. But the committee said there was no need for new advice. Approvals for using lindane as a spray on turf and soil, in smoke and in home gardens will remain unchanged, although the committee recommended additional engineering controls to reduce exposure.
For smoke generators, the ACP said products should specify that no-one could go back into a treated
area until 12 hours after the chemical had been used. Exposure to the skin and by inhalation needed more research.
The Austrian Ministry of Agriculture Report for the European Union found too many data gaps to set a safe exposure level for lindane, and recommended a ban. Yet although the government banned the use of lindane as a seed treatment, its other uses – including on apples and in grain stores – continue. More than 41 tonnes of lindane have been used on agricultural crops in a year. Denmark, Germany, Holland, Sweden and 14 other countries have banned lindane.
In a product survey organised by the campaign, Doff ant killer containing lindane was mentioned most frequently. ‘Although it is still approved for use in this country, retailers such as Homebase and B&Q have said they won’t stock it,’ said Sandra Bell of
FoE.
Conclusion
Peter Beaumont, of PAN UK, said the evaluation uncovered unusual findings about skin absorption. ‘Volunteers were treated with lindane solution, and washing shortly after this seemed to help skin penetration of lindane by a factor of two,’ said Peter. ‘Several studies showed that absorption of lindane across healthy female skin could be three times greater than across healthy male skin.’
‘A ten minute application for gardeners could lead to exposure of up to 40 per cent of the the safe level.’
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 47, March 2000, page 18]