Analysis: Healthy crops or healthy people? Balancing the needs for pest control against the effect of pesticides on bystanders

Journal of Environmental Law

Volumn 21, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 483-499

  Warren, Lynda M ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Challenge to discretionary judgment; Evidence base; Harm to residents; Harmonisation; Pesticides; Plant Protection Products (Pesticides) Directive

Indexed keywords

ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION; ENVIRONMENTAL RISK; HEALTH IMPACT; LEGISLATIVE IMPLEMENTATION; PEST CONTROL; PESTICIDE APPLICATION; POLLUTION POLICY; RISK ASSESSMENT;

EID: 70449350446     PISSN: 09528873     EISSN: 1464374X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jel/eqp029     Document Type: Article

References (56)

1. Council Directive (EEC) 91/414/ of 15 July 1991 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market [1991] OJ L230.
2. Art 8(1): Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. Art 8(2): There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
3. Georgina Downs v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2009] Env L R 19, at para 52 and preceding analysis.
4. Ibid [53].
5. Ibid [63].
6. Ibid [67].
7. Case C-471/OOP(R).
8. Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v Georgina Downs [2009] EWCA Civ 664, [69].
9. Ibid [76].
10. Ibid [97].
11. Ibid [98].
12. Ibid cited at [99].
13. Ibid [103].
14. Ibid [103].
15. Hatton v United Kingdom (2003) 37 EHRR 28.
16. Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v Georgina Downs [2009] EWCA Civ 664, [114].
17. RCEP, Crop Spraying and the Health of Residents and Bystanders September 2005, para 1.12.
18. G Downs, 'Evidence for the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution - Pesticides and Bystander Exposure Study' 21 October 2004, available at .
19. JR Nuckols, RB Gunier, P Riggs, R Miller, P Reynolds and MH Ward, 'Linkage of the California Pesticide Use Reporting Database with Spatial Land Use Data for Exposure Assessment' (2007) 115 Environ Health Perspect 684.
20. M Keifer and R Mahurin, 'Chronic Neurological Effects of Pesticide Overexposure' (1997) 12 Occup Med - State of the Art Rev 291-304
21. SH Zahm, MH Ward and A Blair 'Pesticides and cancer' Ibid 269.
22. See, eg C Lu, RA Fenske, NJ Simcox and D Kalman 'Pesticide Exposure of Children in an Agricultural Community: Evidence of Household Proximity to Farmland and Take Home Exposure Pathways' (2000) 84 Environ Res 290.
23. See, eg J Jurewicz and W Hanke 'Exposure to Pesticides and Childhood Cancer Risk: Has There Been Any Progress in Epidemiological Studies?' (2006) 19 Int J Occup Med Environ Health 152.
24. .
25. Ecuador: Protests Against Anti-drug Crop Spraying Across Border Heat Up, Inter Press Service News Agency .
26. RCEP, above (n 17) para 2.34.
27. Ibid para 2.65.
28. Ibid.
29. Advisory Committee on Pesticides Crop Spraying and the Health of Residents and Bystanders: A commentary on the Report published by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution in September 2005 (30 December 2005), para 6.3.
30. Ibid, summary.
31. Ibid, para 3.44.
32. Committees on Toxicity and Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment, Statement on Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution: Crop Spraying and the Health of Residents and Bystanders April 2006, para 31(i).
33. RCEP, above (n 17) paras 1.5-1.6.
34. RCEP, Response to the Commentary of the Advisory Committee on Pesticides on the RCEP's Report on Crop Spraying and the Health of Residents and Bystanders.
35. Georgina Downs v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2009] Env L R 19, para 38.
36. Ibid [62]. See also [64].
37. Ibid [40].
38. Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v Georgina Downs [2009] EWCA Civ 664, [46].
39. Ibid [51-52].
40. See, eg the analysis of different approaches discussed in J Jones 'Regulatory Design for Scientific Uncertainty: Acknowledging the Diversity of Approaches in Environmental Regulation and Public Administration' (2007) 19 JEL 347-65
41. B Wynne 'Uncertainty and Environmental Learning: Reconceiving Science and Policy in the Preventive Paradigm' (1992) 2 Global Environ Change 111
42. and C Weiss 'Expressing Scientific Uncertainty' (2003) 2 Law Probability and Risk 25.
43. See, eg the discussion of policy for GMOs in A Kellow, 'Risk Assessment and Decision-making for Genetically Modified Foods' (2002) 13 Risk Health Safety Environ 115.
44. ACP Commentary paragraph 4 (31) quoted in Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v Georgina Downs [2009] EWCA Civ 664, para 78.
45. Ibid.
46. As evidence by the very existence of the Health and Safety Executive's Pesticides Incidents Appraisal Panel.
47. Quote from the BMA 1990 Guidance to Pesticide Chemicals and Health which advocated a precautionary approach now to be found in the Directive. Quoted in Georgina Downs v Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [2009] Env LR 19, [7].
48. Directive 91/414/EEC Article 4(1)(b)(iv).
49. Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs v Georgina Downs [2009] EWCA Civ 664, [48].
50. The Commission is working on an EU Thematic Strategy for Pesticides. It is intended to replace Directive 91/414/EEC with a new Regulation and make a new Directive on sustainable use of pesticides. Much to the UK Government's consternation, the European Parliament adopted amendments to the proposals at its plenary meeting in January 2009 and it is expected that the Regulation will be in force shortly. The UK Government has so far reserved its position on the proposed Directive.
51. Referral letter from Pesticides Safety Directorate,11 March 2009.
52. 'Accepted Operator Exposure Level'.
53. There has been some progress in addressing the methodological difficulties of epidemiological analysis of crop spraying impacts. See, eg B Ritz and RP Rull 'Assessment of Environmental Exposures from Agricultural Pesticides in Childhood Leukaemia Studies: Challenges and Opportunities' (2008) 132 Radiation Protection Dosimetry 148
54. Nuckols and others, above (n 19)
55. and JA Hoppin, JL Adgate, M Eberhart, M Nishioka and PB Ryan, 'Environmental Exposure Assessment of Pesticides in Farmworker Homes' (2006) 114 Environ Health Perspect 929.
56. HL Debs, Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Oral Questions (16 December 2008) col. 736.