OP News : August 2005

SHAPE report published

The long-awaited report of the SHAPE project (Survey of Health and Pesticide Exposure) has now been published. This is a survey of health complaints among sheep dippers, carried out by Dr Tony Fletcher and others at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

In his executive summary Dr Fletcher says:

Results from a telephone survey confirmed that the health of those studied was generally poor.
A wide range of symptoms was reported including 81% of participants reporting concentration/memory difficulties, and 74% fatigue.
Four out of five of those interviewed reported having had an acute exposure episode; on average these had poorer health than the others. This is consistent with the view
It is plausible that the ill-health of many of these is related to, or made worse by, their OP exposure history.
A significant minority, about one in five, had reported that they had not experienced an acute response but nevertheless included many with neuropathy signs and
We conclude that these results support the need for further research on longterm effects of OPs on health.

DEFRA issued a news release about the report which says: "The report does not provide information that would change the government's policy to allow OP sheepdips to remain on the market. These are authorised veterinary medicinal products that have been assessed for their quality, safety and efficacy before being granted marketing authorisations. However, government has an ongoing commitment to investigate alternatives to OPs for controlling sheepscab in three projects valued at Ł1.7 million."

We believe that the outcome of this study provides sufficient evidence of long-term effects of OPs on health among sheepdippers, and it is extremely unjust that the people who took part in this study and provided evidence of long-term symptoms should still receive no form of compensation from the government. The SHAPE report can be downloaded from the DEFRA website.

All-Party Pesticide Parliamentary Group

A meeting was held last month at the House of Commons at which it was decided that the All-Party Organophosphate Group should merge with the All-Party Pesticide Group. David Drew MP is the chairman and Paul Tyler is a vice-chair. Alison Craig of the Pesticide Action Network will provide administrative support. OPIN has been asked to supply input as before. As you may know, Paul Tyler retired as MP at the last election and is now a member of the House of Lords. He will be known as Lord Tyler of Linkinhorne.

Study of neuropsychological and psychiatric functioning among OP-exposed sheepdippers

Dr Sarah Mackenzie Ross, a clinical neuropsychologist at University College hospital, London, who has been granted funding for a large study of cognitive impairment by DEFRA, is still looking for sheepdippers to take part in this study. If you wish to take part, please ring Kelly Abraham on 020 7679 1891. There is more information about this study on the DEFRA science web site.

Dr Mackenzie Ross was asked some years ago to carry out a limited study of cognitive impairment among sheep dippers for Hodge, Jones and Allen, solicitors based in London, who were preparing a legal case, but they did not provide funding to examine a control group. Now Dr Mackenzie Ross has used her own money to provide evidence from such a control group and is preparing to make the results public in the near future. She is confident that these results will show powerful evidence of cognitive impairment among sheepdippers. (People with cognitive impairment demonstrate problems with memory, perception and problem-solving, among other things).