On 23 October, the European Parliament voted on legislative proposals for a new pesticides policy package in first reading. Ahead of the vote, the Health & Environment Alliance and its Member organisations engaged in a series of initiatives to support better protection of human health and especially that of children and other vulnerable groups.

Update on the Parliamentary vote

The EU pesticides policy package comprises a Regulation on the Authorisation of Plant Protection Products on the market (revision of the EU’s 1991 plant protection products directive), a Framework Directive and a Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides.

Environment and health NGOs, including the Health & Environment Alliance, expressed disappointment at seeing key gains on the Directive on pesticide use cast aside. MEPs opposed proposals for a 20 percent reduction in pesticide use over ten years, thus watering down the outcome of the Environment Committee vote earlier this year. However, the European Parliament did retain an EU target for halving pesticide use by 2013 for two categories of substances: chemicals of "very high concern" as defined under the REACH chemical risk management policy and "toxic and very toxic" substances. Also, most MEPs voted to prohibit or severely restrict pesticide spraying in and around public areas such as residential areas, parks, playgrounds and healthcare facilities where children and vulnerable groups spend most of their time.

On the Authorisation Regulation, NGOs were relieved that the Parliament agreed to expand the range of hazardous substances that would be banned and to further encourage the substitution of hazardous active ingredients by less hazardous alternatives. In particular, the Parliament’s vote backed a ban on the sale of pesticides that may cause cancer and endanger reproduction, immune and neural systems as well as affect child’s development including when exposure is likely to happen during embryonic and foetal life or during childhood.

In the next step, the Council of Ministers will take a common position on the proposed law.

Read the joint NGO press release on the vote: MEPs fold on mandatory pesticide use reduction.

Health & Environment Alliance postcard campaign

Ahead of the vote, the Health & Environment Alliance launched a postcard campaign urging MEPs to support a pesticide reform that will take the most dangerous pesticides off the market and make children’s spaces pesticide-free. (Download the postcard in English and French, read the information release).

The campaign objectives were to share the scientific evidence on the negative health impacts to children’s health and to highlight what the European Parliament could do immediately to reverse this trend.

The postcard was successfully sent to Members of the European Parliament by patients’ and women’s groups, doctors’ associations, other health and environmental organizations and individual citizens from across the EU.

The Health & Environment Alliance, the International Society of Doctors for the Environment and the Cancer Protection and Education Society also sent a joint letter to the group of “MEPs Against Cancer initiative” highlighting the links between pesticides and cancer.

HEAL members send letters to the editor

The Austrian Doctors for the Environment sent a letter to the editor of Austrian newspaper Kronenzeitung which was published on 12 October. The letter highlighted the hazardous health effects of pesticides and urged MEPs to vote for a more protecting EU pesticides legislation. The Irish Doctors for the Environment sent a letter to the editor of the Irish Examiner which was published on 17 October (copied below).

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MEPs should vote to protect child health http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2007/10/17/story45406.asp

WHILE much attention is being given to the financial problems in the health service, not all interventions need increased expenditure.

Many chemicals - pesticides, for example - are overused. Unnecessary use of pesticides within EU countries is a significant threat to children’s health. Some pesticides are also associated with increased risks of cancer and asthma in children. Another concern is that children exposed to pesticides today may be more likely to develop a chronic disease later in life.

The Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association would like to see reduced pesticide use, the removal from the market of the most hazardous products and a ban on spraying pesticides and insecticides near parks, schools, playgrounds and any other area where children are eating, playing and learning.

A chance to achieve this limitation on the use of pesticides is coming up in the European Parliament next week. If the vote to protect children’s health is missed this time, another chance to ban the most hazardous chemicals will not come again for many years. As doctors, we need to bring to public attention the vulnerability of children in particular to these hazardous compounds. We urge your readers to make it known to their MEP that their vote should be in favour of our children’s health.

Dr Elizabeth Cullen Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association Kilcullen Co Kildare

Pesticide Watch campaign

The Health & Environment Alliance is also a partner organisation in the EU pesticide watch campaign, an on-line information resource supported and maintained by a coalition of European NGOs working to promote public health and the environment. The objective of the website is to help the public contact their MEPs and call for better European legislation on pesticides.