OP News : July 2004
SHAPE study report received at last
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has now submitted the draft of the final report of the epidemiological part of the SHAPE study to DEFRA. Subject to analysis and peer review this will be published and circulated in late autumn. The clinical study has not yet been completed.
Gulf war illness inquiry
OPIN has been invited to give evidence to the independent inquiry set up to investigate illnesses resulting from the first Gulf war. We have submitted evidence regarding the widespread use of OP pesticides. The inquiry has been set up at the request of Lord Morris of Manchester, a long-time campaigner for the rights of the disabled, and the Royal British Legion. Funding has come from an anonymous charity, and Lord Lloyd of Berwick has accepted the role of chair of the inquiry.
OPIN has submitted two sets of documents: the first relates to the unregulated and chaotic use of pesticides using information drawn from an MOD report produced by their Organophosphate Pesticide Investigation Team (OPPIT), and the second gives details of the health effects of exposure to OPs. Without all the information and support supplied by hundreds of farmers in Britain suffering chronic exposure to OPs this submission would not have been possible. We do not say that OPs caused all the symptoms of Gulf syndrome, but we do believe that they may have contributed significantly to the illnesses experienced by the services.
Study of Welsh farmers
We have learnt that the World Wildlife Fund and the Cooperative bank in Wales are to make a study into chemicals found in the bodies of three generations of selected farming families. This should deliver some very important information about the effects of modern farming.
Industrial injury tribunals
OPIN continues to send advice to farmworkers who have applied for Industrial Injury Disablement Benefit (C3) for OP poisoning. The Department for Work and Pensions still appears to employ doctors who do not understand OP poisoning to advise their officers on the health of applicants.
Inquest into death at Porton Down
In 1954 an RAF corporal, Ronald Maddison, died at Porton Down in Wiltshire while undergoing an OP nerve gas test. He was a "volunteer" and had no idea what chemicals were going to be tested on him. An inquest was held internally at Porton to which his parents were invited, on the condition that they told no-one of the events. Fifty years later the Lord Chief Justice quashed the original verdict of death by misadventure and said that a new inquest was required in the interests of justice. The new inquest opened in May and is being held in Trowbridge in Wiltshire. A new document was introduced by the MOD on 19 July and the inquest was halted while lawyers discussed the contents; the contents have not been made public. The inquest is to be adjourned on 23 July for a month. It was originally expected to finish in July but will now probably run until September. When a verdict is reached there will be a great deal of publicity about the whole sad story.
This event and the Gulf war inquiry will cause a lot of interest and publicity in the subject of OP poisoning, and will result in a resurgence of interest in hundreds of farmers who have suffered chronic ill-health.
Review of effects of pesticides exposure on human health
A comprehensive review of research of the effects of pesticides on human health shows "consistent links to serious illnesses such as cancer, reproductive problems and neurological diseases" and says that "children are particularly vulnerable to pesticides".
The review was published in April by the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP). Among the principal findings of the review is that occupational exposure to agricultural chemicals may be associated with adverse reproductive effects including birth defects, fetal death and intrauterine growth retardation. The review can be found at the OCFP website here.