Ministers reject call for pesticide 'buffer zones'

Ministers were accused of putting public health at risk after rejecting a call by a royal commission for buffer zones to stop pesticides being sprayed near people's homes. Environment ministers said there was no scientific justification for five-metre buffer zones alongside homes, schools, hospitals and retirement centres to avoid people being exposed to pesticide sprays.

Campaigners against crop spraying said the decision was scandalous. Georgina Downs said the Government's rejection of the commission's advice was "an absolute disgrace" and accused environment ministers of treating people in the countryside with contempt.

She added: "The Government have refused to acknowledge the health risks inherent in the spraying of agricultural chemicals and have decided not to introduce any legal measures to protect rural residents and communities."

Lord Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association and former UK head of Greenpeace, said he was shocked by the Government's rejection of the recommendations by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.

"If the Government won't look after people's health by acting on the best scientific advice they have, the answer has to be a large-scale move to organic farming, and the end of all pesticide sprays in the British countryside," he said.

There were also suspicions among campaigners that the Government had used the final days of the parliamentary session to slip out its controversial decision with 40 other ministerial announcements to limit the damage. The Commons is not sitting today and many MPs plan to leave for their summer break this weekend.

The royal commission report said there was a "plausible link" between pesticide exposure of bystanders and residents near farm fields and chronic ill-health. It warned that the uncertainties indicated an urgent need for research and recommended a "more precautionary approach".

The commission said: "We see five-metre buffer zones as providing the necessary further protection."

Lord Rooker, a veteran agriculture minister, said the Government did not allow unsafe pesticides to be used. "We had buffer zones anyway for water courses and ditches so the pesticides do not go into the water and farmers are not allowed to spray pesticides up against hedges any more," he said.

Announcing the decision, Ian Pearson, the Environment minister, said: "These concerns are best addressed at the local level through dialogue between residents and farmers to identify and understand the issues and to develop mutually agreeable solutions.

"I believe this can be achieved most rapidly through a voluntary approach that allows for innovative and flexible solutions."

The Government report said: "Being unable to rule out the possibility of a link can not be considered a basis to support the recommendation of an urgent need for research into any potential chronic ill-health effects from pesticide exposure of resident and bystanders. There is no scientific basis for additional precaution beyond the already precautionary approach currently adopted."

Mr Pearson was moved to the environment department three months ago from the Foreign Office where he was responsible for human rights.