Campaigner wins pesticides court battle
14 11 08 - 08:30 An environmental campaigner today won a landmark victory against the government in a long-running legal battle over the use of pesticide.The court said the government had failed to comply with a European directive designed to protect rural communities from exposure to the toxins. It said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) must reassess its policy, and investigate the risks to people exposed. Defra had argued that its approach to the regulation and control of pesticides was "reasonable, logical and lawful".
Downs, who lives on the edge of farm fields near Chichester, West Sussex, launched her independent UK Pesticides Campaign in 2001. The judge described how she was only 11 years old when first exposed to pesticide spraying "and began to suffer from ill health, in particular flu-like symptoms, sore throat, blistering and other problems".
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It seems idealic to live near open fields, yet the poison from pesticides means a serious risk to health. Organic farming must be the future.
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