OP summit called off

Animal health and organic farming minister Ben Bradshaw was accused of turning his back on the plight of hundreds of sick farmers when he cancelled a top-level summit on toxic sheep dip chemicals which had been due to be held on 20 October 2003. Mr Bradshaw, MP for Exeter, said he was cancelling the long-planned government seminar on organophosphate poisoning because there was ‘little new to say’. The meeting was to have brought together scientists, health experts, representatives from the chemical industry and farmers with ministers and officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 
    The decision brought an angry response from environmental campaigners who believe that long-term exposures to OPs has caused severe health problems for hundreds of farmers. 

Western Morning News, 22 October 2003.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 62, December 2003, page 21]