The Farmers Mart Aug/Sep 2016 - Issue 47 | Page 18

Sheep Dip Controversy

Farm minister rejected
calls for inquiry
It is more than a year since then Farm minister
George Eustice rejected calls for an inquiry into
whether farmers were misled over the use of
organophosphate-based (OP) chemicals.
» IN APRIL THE GUARDIAN
newspaper revealed the then
government was privately
warning of the dangers of
exposure to even low doses
of the chemical and criticising
the safety measures offered
by manufacturers, yet publicly
criticising farmers who refused
to use the chemical.
Speaking at a debate in
parliament, Eustice said he
would meet victims but that
an inquiry would add nothing
to the conclusions of the
government’s independent
advisers, the committee on
toxicity (COT) which found
no link between low-level
exposure and chronic ill
health.
Eustice told MPs that
officials had ‘nothing to hide’
and that the documents
published by the Health

and Safety Executive (HSE)
warning of the dangers of
sheep dips were not based on
scientific reports, unlike the
later conclusions of COT.

‘It is time for a
full disclosure of
all the documents
published around
this time’
“The COT have looked
at this exhaustively, looking
at dozens and dozens of
documents and could not find
any link [to chronic ill health],”
he said at the time, admitting
that he was sympathetic to
those farmers suffering ill
health and acknowledged
that “some of those farmers
do associate their illness with

their use of OP sheep dips”.
Despite playing down
the risks posed by OPs to
farmers, the government did
issue guidance leaflets and
compel manufacturers of
OP chemicals to add hazard
warning stickers to containers.
Both of these steps were
not, however, undertaken
until April 1993, almost two
years after internal warnings
by officials, according to a
document released under
a freedom of information
request.
“It is time for a full disclosure
of all the documents published
around this time by government
and for an inquiry, independent
of government departments or
COT, to be set up to look into
this afresh,” said Labour MP
Jessica Morden, who organised
the parliamentary debate. “We

need to see who in government
knew what, when and why they
might not have acted upon it.”
Her calls were backed by
Labour’s Andy Burnham, who
called the original revelations a
“major scandal”, as well as MPs
from the Conservatives and
Democratic Unionist Party.
Conservative MP Neil Parish,
who has been unopposed
in his nomination as chair of
the influential environment,
food and rural affairs select
committee, told the Guardian
that if ministers failed to
properly investigate the issue
he would during his upcoming
term in office.
While welcoming the support
of MPs, campaigners have
criticised the lack of concern
shown by the UK’s main farming
organisations to sheep dip
sufferers.

AN UPHILL STRUGGLE THAT CONTINUES
THE SHEEP DIP SUFFERERS
Support Group was set up at
the start of 2015 with three
main aims: to help those who
are affected to get medical
treatment, to make them
understand they are not alone,
and to get official recognition
of the scale of the problem.
Lancashire farmer Tom Rigby
is the Support Group coordinator and is working with
other volunteers to continue
the battle on behalf of the
many people affected. It has

been an uphill struggle all the
way but Tom is hopeful that
progress will soon be made
after all this time.
“After considerable
difficulty, and after Freedom of
Information requests, we did
manage to secure the release of
a number of official documents

from 1992 - published for the
first time this year.
“For years MAFF/DEFRA
refused to accept anyone was
affected; the phrase they used
was “the Government takes
very seriously the fact that there
are sheep farmers who believe
their health has been seriously

‘We are hopeful that a public
inquiry will take place next year’

18 Aug/Sep 2016 www.farmers-mart.co.uk

compromised as a result of
dipping sheep” but after we met
George Eustice last November
he did acknowledge that some
farmers had been affected.
“We are hopeful that a public
inquiry will take place next
year.”
Readers can contact Tom
by email: tomrigby2@
btopenworld.com or via
the website, where more
information is available.
www.sheepdipsufferers.uk