APPENDIX 9
Memorandum submitted by Mr Evan Jones
(B 9)
I was a sheep-farmer and used licensed sheep
dips under the statutory dipping orders. Like hundreds of others,
I have been diagnosed as having suffered a wide range of damage
as a result of exposure to OP sheep dips. I stopped farming in
1992 and sold my farm in 1995. The prognosis is that I will not
be able to work again.
The mass-poisoning of sheep farmers took place
under the supervision of the manufacturers, MAFF, the HSE, The
Veterinary Products Committee and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
The Medicines Control Agency should also have been involved, but
apparently it carried out no monitoring of the contents of sheep
dip during most of the period that OP sheep dips have been used.
The manufacturers and the Government agencies were well aware
of the dangers of OP sheep dips and were well aware that people
were suffering permanent damage but no action was taken. Not only
were farmers not informed of HSE report Medical Series 17 but
neither were their medical practitioners. This raises serious
questions over the conduct of not just the manufacturers but also
the HSE and MAFF.
The report of the Royal Colleges of Physicians
and Psychiatrists on organophosphates concluded that the symptoms
experienced by victims were real but the Government continues
to try to deny this. Research by the Institutes of Occupational
Health and Occupational Medicine came to similar conclusions and
that the damage was measurable and was widespread but the Government
has tried to deny this also, despite having funded the research,
approved the protocols and the researchers.
There is no need for organophosphate sheep-dips.
Sheep scab had been eliminated from Britain without the use of
OPs. This is in stark contrast to the utter failure of the massive
use of OPs under the Scab Elimination scheme from the 1970s until
1992. This points to OPs being inefficient sheep-dips under commercial
farming conditions. There are sheep-dips which are licensed as
being effective and which are based on less hazardous compounds.
MAFF also licensed some farmers to use home-mixed dips that contained
no dangerous compounds. MAFF must have satisfied itself that those
mixtures were effective. So there is no need for OP dips.
OP sheep dips should not reappear on the market
until all of the following conditions have been met:
1. That effective treatment is available
to all of the individuals who have been damaged by OPs and those
who might be damaged in future;
2. That the research currently underway at
Porton Down into the effects of OPs on primates should be reported
and the results subjected to public appraisal. That this research
must involve the use of the unstable formulations that were in
use until they were ordered off the market by the Government in
1993;
3. That the research currently being planned
as a result of the Committee on Toxicity report on Organophosphates
has been completed and the results subjected to public appraisal;
4. That there has been a full public inquiry
into the entire issue of the licensing of OP sheep dips. The inquiry
should consider why OP sheep dips were licensed despite the regulatory
bodies' knowledge of the damage being done to sheep farmers and
other workers. The inquiry should also consider why epichlorohydrin,
a known carcinogen, was used to dip the British sheep flock and
why HMG has not drawn this exposure to the notice of farmers and
their doctors, and why epichlorohydrin was disposed of by pouring
it into holes in the ground from which it would inevitably enter
the water supply. Epichlorohydrin was eventually withdrawn from
sheep dips and MAFF has stated that this was because of its carcinogenic
qualities. The inquiry should consider why propylene oxide continues
to be used in OP sheep dips despite being a known carcinogen;
5. That it is a legal requirement that OP
sheep dips must carry a complete list of the ingredients;
6. That section 118 of the Medicines Act
has been removed from the Statute book;
7. That responsibility for licensing veterinary
medicines that involve human exposures should be the sole responsibility
of the Secretary of State for Health in England.
21 March 2000
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