Lindane (Hansard, 15 July 1999)

§ Lord Donoughue

We have now banned the use of lindane to treat seeds in England, Scotland and Wales. We have considered carefully the representations received as a result of our announcement of 18 June that we planned to implement in full the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides. We understand that the decision will cause real difficulties to some companies and farmers, but we have not received any further evidence to suggest that the risk to operators from treating seed with lindane was significantly less than that assessed by the committee. We have therefore acted, with my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, Scottish Ministers and the Welsh Assembly to revoke the approvals for the use of lindane to treat seed as of 7 July. Similar steps are being taken in Northern Ireland.

The committee has advised that the risk to farmers from using lindane-treated seed is acceptably low. Farmers may also adopt other strategies to combat pests including other cereal seed treatments or crop sprays.

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Consumers may be reassured that other approved uses of lindane, which continue for the present, do not constitute an unacceptable risk to consumers.