The Planet on Sunday, June 16, 1996

    AN American court has just awarded $4 million to a child born with no 
eyes because the mother was exposed to a fungicide during her pregnancy. She 
had lived near a Florida fruit farm. It is the first time a court has linked 
a birth defect to an airborne pesticide. In a special investigation, The 
Planet on Sunday presents compelling evidence that pesticides are causing 
defects and cancers in Britain's children.

EVERY one of us is coming into  contact with pesticides every  day. There 
are traces in our food,  in our water. Many of us are living in homes where 
they have been used to treat timber against dry rot and wood worm, or to 
control pests such as cockroaches, fleas or mice.

There are pesticides in rain and fog. Perhaps even in the air we breathe.

No-one knows what this constant low-level exposure to a vast cocktail of 
pesticides is doing to our health and to the environment.

Between July and December last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries 
and Food (Maff) which is responsible both for allowing pesticides to be 
used, and for monitoring the quality of our food, reported worryingly high 
levels of the insecticide lindane in retail milk samples. Lindane is 
classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a possible 
human carcinogen. It has also been linked with possible birth defects. 
Because lindane is fat soluble, it doesn't break down.

So when milk is made into cheese, the lindane stays, and when we eat the 
cheese, or drink the milk, it stays in our body.

In January 1995, Maff reported unusually high levels of organo-phosphate 
insecticide residues in carrots. These chemicals are direct descendants of 
wartime nerve gasses.

Some farmers using these chemicals have suffered mental health problems and 
even paralysis. At lower doses symptoms might include stomach cramps, 
nausea. diarrhoea and headaches.

Last summer the Department of the Environment said that more research was 
needed to assess the true risk to health from chemicals in the environment 
which mimic the hormone oestrogen.

These   environmental   oestrogens, which include many pesticides such as 
DDT, lindane and permethrin, are thought to be linked to reduced fertility 
among British men, some of whom are now producing 50 per cent less sperm 
than their counterparts 30 years ago. American    expert    Dr    Theo 
Colburn whose book, Our Stolen Future, has just been published, believes 
that environmental oestrogens arc responsible for disrupting the bleeding of 
humans as well as many animal species.

Government scientists can offer no clear explanations . Not only is it 
unclear what these chemicals do in our bodies, but no one can explain 
exactly what happens to them in the environment. The Government and the 
chemical companies say pesticides go through rigorous testing before they 
are approved, but new health scares and unexplained environmental problems 
appear all the lime.

Can we trust the authorities who tell us that pesticides ate safe, and at 
the same time cannot explain why our milk is contaminated?

But it is not only pesticides used in agriculture which may be damaging our 
health.

In November, the Government announced that carbaryl, which has been used for 
40 years to treat head lice and kill lawn and house­hold insect pests causes 
cancer.

At about the same time, the German government announced that permethrin. 
which is widely used in home pesticides, may be causing brain cancer.

Our own government suggested using permethrin to replace carbaryl.

There are thousands of different pesticides on the market, and every one of 
them will have different effects on us, our children, our pets and the 
environment - see bottom right.

The effect is also not always directly related to the amount of poison. Even 
the tiniest amounts taken in at crucial times, for example during pregnancy, 
can trigger cancer or devastating birth defects.

Last  week  an  American  court awarded $4 million to a child born with no 
eyes, because the mother was   exposed   to   the   fungicide benomyl during 
pregnancy.

Refusing

The problems with pesticides are not new. One of the earliest and most 
famous environmental awareness books ever written was 'Silent Spring" by 
Rachel Carson. This was in 1963, and in many respects little has changed.

But pesticides will not disappear overnight cither, and refusing to eat 
fruit and vegetables or drink milk and water, will damage our health much 
more than pesticide residues ever will.

Research has shown that fanners can keep producing quality food at good 
yields by using less pesticides overall.

We need to reduce our overall reliance on pesticides, and the Government 
needs to help farmers  do that.

 What WE can do is let food suppliers, water companies, farmers and the 
Government know that we want change, and that their reassurances are not 
enough.

  LITTLE Claire Stanton came into the world with massive disabilities and at 
seven months was diagnosed with Charge. "I was told very little about the 
condition," said mother Cassy, 32, "I wanted to find some answers."

  It was at Great Ormond Street Hospital, after doctors ruled out any 
hereditary explanations for Claire's condition, that Cassy was asked if she 
had worked with any chemicals or if she had been exposed to them.

  She was told that some people believe there is a link between incidences 
of Charge and the use of certain pesticides.

  After talking with the mother of another Charge child, Cassy suddenly 
realised that her office had been sprayed following a cockroach infestation.

  With the help of her office manager. Cassy checked the dates and found 
that her office had been cleaned on the 38th day of her pregnancy.

  She later discovered from experts that the unborn child develops Charge in 
the womb between 35 and 40 days of the pregnancy.

  Cassy was told verbally that the chemical sprayed in her office was 
permethrin. She asked for a copy of the invoice from the contractor to 
confirm this but her request was denied.

  Determined to get some answers, Cassy successfully applied for Legal Aid 
for her daughter.

  With help from her MP, Andrew Mackinlay (Lab. Thurrock), who raised 
questions in Parliament, and The Green Network, she pressed for answers.

  But when Claire died following a heart op just before she was four, the 
Legal Aid was withdrawn, but Cassy is determined to still go on fighting.

  She said: "Claire suffered - her life wasn't easy, but I am damn sure it 
isn't going to be in vain."