§ Miss Maynardasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food by whom the chemical Dinoseb was cleared for use in the United Kingdom; what account he 637W proposes to take of the action taken by the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States of America in relation to the chemical; what estimate he has of the size of the workforce of both sexes exposed to this chemical in the United Kingdom; if products containing Dinoseb are available over the counter for use by amateur gardeners; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Donald ThompsonThe herbicide dinoseb has been evaluated on a number of occasions since 1961 by the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and its scientific subcommittee. On the basis of their advice, successive Governments have agreed to allow its use, subject to certain conditions, under the pesticides safety precaution scheme and more recently under the new statutory arrangements for pesticides approvals. Under these, Dinoseb has provisional approval. This was agreed jointly by my Department, the Scottish Office, the Welsh Office, and the Departments of Employment, Health and Social Services and the Environment.
Companies supplying Dinoseb products in the United Kingdom have been requested to provide us with the data on which the EPA based its decision. As soon as we have those data, they will be evaluated and reviewed as a matter of urgency by the independent experts of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides and its scientific sub-committee.
No data on exposure to workers using Dinoseb in the United Kingdom are available in the form requested. However, Dinoseb is not widely used in the United Kingdom and, under the terms of its approval, does not leave residues in crops at harvest. Moreover it is subject to the poisonous substances in agriculture regulations as a second schedule part II substance which require operators to wear, according to operation, faceshield, rubber gloves, coverall, rubber boots and hood.
The risk of exposure is therefore low.
No products containing Dinoseb have been cleared or approved in the United Kingdom for use by amateur growers.