From RICHARD TROW-SMITH
I write in response to the feature ‘Quiet sufferers of the silent spring’,
by Hazel Bartle (on pesticide poisoning, 18 May).
First, one crucial point. The crop protection industry has always stressed
that anyone who feels they might have been affected by pesticide contamination
should immediately seek medical advice. We make this point very clearly
on product labels and farmers should keep records of all their operations
to give to anyone who needs it and to meet the Food and Environment Protection
Act 1985.
We feel that the sufferer’s own doctor is the only one who can probe
and analyse the many possible causes of the symptoms described in the article;
he or she has the persons case histories to hand. Then, if the diagnosis
is pesticide contamination as the most likely cause, the doctor can make
rapid contact for further information and treatment with the national system
of Poisons Units or the National Chemicals Emergency Centre at Harwell.
The other key point of contact is the Health and Safety Executive, which
also investigates in great depth every incident reported to its inspectors,
whether it happens to the user or the bystander.
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Our member companies are geared up for immediate responses to requests
for information, both from general practitioners and from the information
and investigation agencies above, and they have 24-hour emergency numbers
to deal with such enquiries.
We agree that many GPs are still not as well trained as they should
be to recognise poisoning of any type. We are putting a training programme
into operation, aimed at the teaching hospitals and the regular Seminars
for GPs that they host. We are also co-operating fully with the Department
of Health in its update of the manual Pesticide Poisonings; Notes for the
Guidance of Medical Practitioners, first available in 1983.
To streamline the reporting of events, the British Agrochemicals Association
joined Friends of the Earth, the Green Alliance, the Transport and General
Workers Union and the Women’s Institute in a unique group which called on
the Government two years ago to replace the various disparate channels with
a single one. This has now been put in motion, a move which we welcome.
The Association has also been behind the introduction of a pilot scheme
for a Green Card system since its inception. This simple card is filled
in by GPs whenever they diagnose a suspected poisoning and sent off to the
Health and Safety Executive via the West Midlands Poisons Unit. This will
help get a much clearer picture of pesticide poisonings in the UK and indicate
under-reporting, if any.
Richard Trow-Sinith British Agrochemicals Association Peterborough.
