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
that people who experience an acute response to OP exposures may also suffer long-term neurological health effects.
• 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
symptoms.
• 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 £1.7 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.

A two-day conference on cabin air contamination will be held on 20 and 21 April 2005 at Imperial College, London. The conference is coordinated by the British Airline Pilot's Association (BALPA) and the keynote speaker is Paul Tyler MP, chair of the All Party Organophosphate Parliamentary Group. More information can be found at the site of the conference producers.

The All-Party OP Group in Parliament has asked Ben Bradshaw, the DEFRA minister responsible for policy on veterinary medicines, to remove existing sheepdips from the market and compensate farmers who are ill from OP exposure. The group, which includes Lord Tom King, met Mr Bradshaw on 25 January and the former environment minister Michael Meacher MP also attended the meeting.

Paul Tyler MP, the chairman of the Group, presented a new report on OPs and ill-health to Mr Bradshaw. Written by journalist John Harvey with help from OPIN, the report draws together cases of people with ill-health from different groups in society who have been exposed to OPs and who have suffered similar symptoms. It concludes by saying that the causal link between OPs and ill-health has been sufficiently demonstrated and that "It is now time for the government to put a greater emphasis on helping the victims of OP poisoning".