A burning issue
While the global community, led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is negotiating a convention to rid the planet of toxic and persistent chemicals such as organochlorines insecticides and dioxins (see page 16) the Crop Protection Association (CPA) [formerly the British Agrochemicals Association] is encouraging UK farmers to burn pesticide containers in their back yards, thereby probably creating a new source of dioxins, furans and other noxious emissions.
Although chlorinated pesticides are not widely used in the UK, since most have been banned for many years, some such as lindane, are still in use. Much pesticide packaging is also likely to be made of chlorinated plastics. The significance of this is that when burnt, chlorinated products form dioxins and furans. These by-products are among the most toxic and hazardous chemicals known and the strictest controls are imposed in industrial countries in an effort to limit or eliminate their release.
The CPA’s idea is that farmers should make a back-yard incinerator out of an old oil drum and burn all their empty pesticide containers in it. This takes no account of the possible by-products of incinerating any of the hundreds of pesticide active ingredients or thousands of formulated products available to UK farmers. It also ignores recently published FAO advice that containers should be taken back by suppliers who are best able to reuse, recycle or dispose of them safely. The advice finally flies in the face of the efforts of UNEP and its member state governments who are trying to rid the world of POPs, not create new sources of them.
We think the CPA should think again.
Container incineration, A practical guide, Crop Protection Association.
No problem from excess residues, say regulators
The authorities in Belgium have found high levels of the plant growth regulator chlormequat, in a consignment of carrots from the Netherlands. The level of chlormequat detected was 8 mg/kg (parts per million), much higher than the maximum residue level of 0.05 mg/kg.
In the UK, the Pesticide Safety Directorate, carried out a risk assessment on the level of chlormequat and worked out that 8mg/kg exceeds the ‘acute reference dose’ (the amount of pesticide which can be consumed in a single portion without causing ill-health). Despite the health-based level being exceeded, PSD go on to conclude that this contamination is ‘unlikely to cause any adverse health effects.’
PSD website, www.pesticides.gov.uk
DDT in jasmine tea
On 13 April the Spanish authorities detected high levels of DDT (0.38 mg/kg [parts per million]) in a consignment of jasmine tea (brand name Sun Flower), according to the European Union Rapid Alert system for food. The maximum residue level for DDT in tea is 0.2 mg/kg. There is no information on the component of DDT found in the tea, and therefore it is not clear whether the level might have resulted from direct application to the crop.
Pesticide Safety Directorate UK website www.pesticides.gov.uk
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 48, June 2000, page 19]