PAN Europe’s Annual Network Conference 2004 for member organisations and collaborators will take place from 12-13 November 2004, in Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain, co-hosted by our colleagues Friends of the Earth Barcelona. This will be the first year we focus on the Mediterranean region, with its many differing agricultural, environmental and political situations from northern Europe. The conference will provide opportunities for experience sharing and debating strategies for NGO influence and public participation in northern and southern Europe and with NGOs in new Member States and further to the east. Knowledge-building on technical and policy issues will highlight health impacts and costs, including endocrine disrupting chemicals and urban exposure to pesticides and household chemicals, as well as developments in our campaign for Pesticide Use Reduction in Europe (PURE).
A key concern of campaigners in Barcelona is workplace exposure to a hazardous cocktail of pesticides and cleaning agents. Over one thousand Catalan workers, mainly women, have suffered severe effects from exposure to toxic chemicals in recent years and some have become permanently disabled from working or leading a normal life. Civil society organisations recently launched a campaign entitled
Pesticides out of our Lives! to draw attention to the health and environmental problems caused by toxic chemicals, with the aim to reduce usage and to replace with safer alternatives. The campaign supports PAN Europe’s demands for PURE and calls for a ban on aerial pesticide application in Catalunya, and on the use of all substances classified as Persistent Organic Pollutants, and for the establishment of a regional pesticide reduction programme. The campaign is supported by leading Catalan environmental organisations, Comisiones Obreras trade union and health professionals from the Centre for Analysis of Health Programmes.
The conference is one of three events organised by FoE Barcelona, as part of the Catalan campaign
Pesticides out of our Lives!, along with the Environment Department of the Catalan Regional Government and the Barcelona Deputation. PAN Europe is also participating in a public meeting to raise media awareness of the issues and in a technical seminar for health, agriculture and environment officers from Catalan institutions on ‘Best European Practice in Control of Pesticides and Chemicals’. The PAN Europe conference programme and registration form will be posted on our website at
www.pan-europe.info and is open to all civil society organisations on application.
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 65, September 2004, page 14]