OP report "disappointing"

The conclusions of a government report on organophosphate (OP) sheep dips have been greeted with surprise and disappointment by unions and pesticide campaigners.

The report found that the link between chronic ill health and low doses of OP's could not be established. Barry Leathwood of the T&G general union said that there was enough circumstantial evidence about ill health among farm workers using OP dips to justify a ban, as the TUC has recently called for. The committee on toxicity accepted that OPs are a hazard, but said that further research into their effects at low levels was needed.