Pesticide spraying arable crops (c) Shutterstock
Today’s blog is written by Vanessa Lonergan, Pesticide Collaboration Coordinator at RSPB, on how we are working collaboratively with many other organisations and individuals to reduce pesticide related harms.
We have long known of the harms of pesticides (chemicals designed to kill living things), both to the environment and human health. Despite this, pesticides are used extensively across the world and the system that governs their use is fundamentally flawed. The body of evidence revealing the harms caused by pesticides to human health and the natural world is also increasing.
The problem with pesticides - both to human health and biodiversity
Pesticides affect the environment by leaching into soils and waterways, killing insects, and depleting bird and fish populations. Recent findings suggest that 41% of insect species are faced with extinction, and the top two reasons implicated are habitat loss and pollution from pesticides1. These statistics are extremely worrying, not least because insects are vitally important as food for other wildlife, and as crop pollinators.
Pesticides are toxic, and exposure to pesticides can cause a number of health effects. They are linked to a range of serious illnesses and diseases from respiratory problems to cancer. Pesticides appear in millions of different combinations in varying concentrations in our food and landscape. Low doses don’t always cause immediate effects, but over time, they can cause very serious illnesses. Long term pesticide exposure has been linked to the development of Parkinson’s disease2; depression and anxiety3; attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)4; and cancer5, including leukaemia and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
There are alternatives and solutions to our current over reliance on pesticides, but we must work together to rally around them – that’s where The Pesticide Collaboration comes in.
The Pesticide Collaboration
In 2021 the Pesticide Collaboration was formed, hosted by RSPB and Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK), to bring together health and environmental organisations, academics, trade unions, farming networks and consumer groups, working under a shared vision to urgently reduce pesticide-related harms in the UK, for a healthy future. Together, these groups represent more than 9 million members of the public and manage over 2 million acres of land in the UK.
We do this through:
Throughout all our work we aim to tackle the root systemic drivers of pesticide reliance and overuse, and advocate for the solutions required to tackle them.
The solutions
Whether it’s campaigning for pesticide-free towns, creating B-lines for insects, backing nature-friendly farming, gardening without pesticides, or making sure the UK sets an ambitious vision for pesticide reduction, there’s lots people can do to tackle and reduce pesticide harms in the UK.
We call on the government to lead the way with the following key asks:
1. Set ambitious pesticide reduction targets for both usage and toxicity
The most effective way to reduce pesticide harms is to reduce the use of pesticides in the first place. Setting a reduction target is not a new concept and has been shown to drive reductions in the use of pesticides in a number of other countries.
2. Phase-out use of pesticides in urban areas
People that live, work, study or play in our towns and cities are directly exposed to pesticides on a regular basis. Councils and other land managers spray pesticides in parks, playgrounds and other green spaces, road verges, pavements, around shopping centres, care homes, and schools, mostly to deal with unwanted vegetation. Pesticides used in UK towns and cities include developmental and reproductive toxins, neurotoxins and possible carcinogens.
Given that most urban amenity pesticide use is purely for cosmetic reasons, there is almost no justification for using pesticides in public urban spaces. In fact, there are a growing number of effective, affordable alternatives and many councils and other land managers throughout the UK have already gone pesticide-free.
3. Commit to ending repeated emergency authorisations of banned pesticides
For the last four years the government permitted the ‘emergency’ use of the banned pesticide thiamethoxam – a type of neonicotinoid. These pesticides are lethal to wildlife - a single teaspoon of neonicotinoid is enough to deliver a lethal dose to 1.25 billion bees. The emergency authorisation process was not designed for repeated year-on-year authorisations like we’re seeing. There must be an end to the current misuse of this system and a commitment to funding research into alternatives.
4. Increase support for farmers to adopt nature-friendly farming practices
Farmers need support to make a transition towards a pesticide-free approach, at scale. Despite there being options in the new agricultural schemes being developed across the UK, currently the majority of farmers don’t have access to the advice, research or financial support they need to significantly reduce, let alone end, their use of pesticides.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an approach to managing pests, diseases or unwanted plants under which chemical pesticides are used only as a last resort, if at all. IPM tackles pests and diseases through the use of a combination of different control methods, with an emphasis on the growth of a healthy crop, the least possible disruption to agro-ecosystems and encouragement of natural pest control mechanisms.
Shopping for vegetables (c) Shutterstock
Our Vision
There is hope - with joined-up thinking that links agriculture to health, lifestyle, food and environment we can see positive change. For more information including our vision and the key organisations involved, please see our website: The Pesticide Collaboration
References
40 years ago I worked on pesticide application. The Forestry Commission were leaders in low volume, targeted application, not through altruism but because hauling water onto the high moors was impractical. What it demonstrated was how through eg ultra low volume and electrostatic systems active ingredient could be massively reduced and more precisely targeted - an end to spray drift. That is just one example of how we can quickly do much better. At the other end of the scale is the scary bit - eg glyphosate resistant gm crops and similar. Every innovation like this has ended in the same way - resistance which simply generates a new problem. The scariest, which still goes on, is the routine feeding of antibiotics to pigs which risks flashover into the human population. Its very hard to measure the quantity rather than the species decline in insects and wildlife food plants but its almost certainly the main cause in decline of a whole raft of species.
Well then , OK Let's get rid of the pest pesticides Yesterday .Why is it taking so long. Rhetorical question. We know the so called new world order individuals are at the root cause of this. Let's give them a military tribunal since the courts are so corrupt,