Take action on pesticides – deadline Friday 26 February – please act now

Paul Mayhew-Archer emailed late last night to share with us news of a VERY tight deadline to implore the Government to take action on pesticides.  Parkinson’s UK and Cure Parkinson’s only recently heard of a survey, and both charities have been beavering away to respond to the survey. They have said that the more of us who can say something the better. Every single contribution, however brief, will help.

We provide below information sent to us, so you can find links to further information, and a link to participate in the survey. Remember you only have until midnight tonight!


Parkinson’s is seldom caused by a single trigger, but we do know that one of the possible environmental factors linked to the condition is exposure to pesticides. The pesticide paraquat, which research has linked with Parkinson’s, is illegal for use in the EU and UK, but it is manufactured here in the UK for export to some non-EU countries including the USA. The government is currently inviting people to comment on its public consultation Sustainable Use of Pesticides: Draft National Action Plan. Please share your concerns about the potential effects of pesticides.

The issues around Paraquat are explored in this blog and the book Ending Parkinson’s Disease- A Prescription For Action. The paraquat story is an example of the ways in which regulations around pesticide use have had an impact on people’s health.

The government is currently inviting people to comment on its public consultation Sustainable Use of Pesticides: Draft National Action Plan. Please comment on and share your concerns about the potential effects that pesticides have had on human health and any concerns about their use. Of course please feel free to mention any other concerns you may have about them too.

You can either respond: Using the government consultation page on this link. There are 27 questions and many of them are quite technical, but you can also just put in your name then skip to Question 27 and fill that out sharing your concerns about the manufacture of paraquat in the UK and the links to Parkinson’s.

Using the Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK) email template. This provides a response to question 27 – PAN UK has set out a standard set of points which you can adapt. Please add an additional bullet point raising your concern about the link with paraquat and Parkinson’s and that it’s still manufactured in the UK.

Parkinson’s UK are working on a joint response with the Pesticide Action Network. However, the more responses the government receives from members of the public that flag up the known and as yet unknown Parkinson’s risk of some pesticides, the greater likelihood they will take action.

 

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