Scientists urge care with 2,4,5-T

Press, 17 April 1982, Page 5

Scientists urge care with 2,4,5-T

NZPA London Scientists who report to the European Commission want a ban on the use of 2.4.5-T weedkiller sprays near wild fruit and mushrooms. They believe the ban should apply even when fruit is not ripe. The ban is proposed in a report from the little-known scientific committee for pesticides. which is administered by the commission. The committee also says that the maximum limit allowed in Britain for inclusion in the sprays of the exceptionally poisonous substance, dioxin, could be halved. The British maximum is lower than in some countries, but 2,4.5-T sprays have been banned in Italy and the Netherlands. The committee does not support a claim by British trade unions that such sprays should be banned because they cause illness and miscarriages. It dismisses as too flimsy the evidence of illness among farmworkers’ families associated with 2.4.5-T which was put forward by the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers in 1980.