HC Deb 26 April 2004 vol 420 cc718-9W
Mr. Tyrie

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what peer-reviewed and published UK studies she has received that have measured actual exposures to pesticides for people living in agricultural areas, including high and lower levels of exposure over both the short and long-term, and including all oral, dermal and inhalation routes of contamination. [166695]

Alun Michael

The data that industry is obliged to submit to support applications for approvals of pesticides are not usually published. Such studies follow internationally agreed protocols and are subject to the requirements of Good Laboratory Practice. These data are subject to scientific review by the Pesticide Safety Directorate and the independent Advisory Committee on Pesticides and/or other European Union regulatory authorities. Evaluation documents are publicly available.

Data submitted generally refer to operators, who represent the highest risk category for exposure to plant protection products. Several studies on worker exposure have been published in peer review journals.

Mr. Tyrie

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what peer-reviewed and published UK studies she has received that have provided direct measurements of pesticide levels in(a) people, (b) wild animals, (c) domestic animals and (d) livestock situated in or near sprayed fields. [166696]

Alun Michael

The data that industry is obliged to submit to support applications for approvals of pesticides are not usually published. Such studies follow internationally agreed protocols and are subject to the requirements of Good Laboratory Practice. These data are subject to scientific review by the Pesticide Safety Directorate (PSD) and the independent Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP) and/or other European Union regulatory authorities. Evaluation documents are publicly available.

(a) Regarding measurements in people, studies have focused on spray operators and farm workers as the highest risk category.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a large study where the exposures of operators applying chlorpyrifos to orchards was monitored. ("Technical Development Survey, Exposure to Chlopyrifos in Orchard Spraying, Health and Safety Executive, Directorate of Science and Technology, Health and Safety Laboratory, and Field Operations Division, 1998".)

The Pesticides Incidents Appraisal Panel studies, and publishes an annual report on, reported incidents and complaints, including alleged ill-health incidents, involving pesticides investigated by the HSE. The report and details of individual incidents are presented to the ACP to inform the pesticide approvals process.

The Secretary of State is aware of further work undertaken in the US, which has been published recently.

(b) Wild animals and (c) domestic animals

In the UK the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WHS) investigates deaths of terrestrial wildlife and domestic animals, where there is strong evidence that pesticide poisoning may be involved. Annual reports of these investigations are published by the Department and are also available on the Pesticides Safety Directorate website.

The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit of the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, has recently published a report (funded by the RSPCA) entitled "A Review of the Effects of Pesticides on Wild Terrestrial Mammals in Britain" (Harrington & MacDonald 2002, ISBN 0 9529371 8 2).

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) operates the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme in which levels of contaminants in livers and eggs of selected species have been monitored. Further information available from the CEH website: www.ceh.ac.uk.

(d) Livestock in or near sprayed fields

Monitoring of pesticide residues in meat and meat products is carried out by the independent Pesticide Residues Committee (PRC). The results are published quarterly, via the PRC's website, at: www.prc-uk.org.

The results are also summarised in an annual report. The most recent report, for 2002, is available free of charge from PSD and is also available on the above website.