Isoproturon, which has been banned since last June, was seemingly still being used last autumn - sparking a row on the industry's voluntary approach to cutting pesticide pollution.

 This is a quotation from Tim's link.

"There have been big peaks in IPU levels at the time of use across the country," said Nick Humphrey of the Voluntary Initiative. "It's everywhere, from Herefordshire, through the midlands to East Anglia, Yorkshire and Aberdeenshire." Data from previous research proved the traces were from recent applications and not the release of chemicals locked-up in the soil from previous years, he said. "IPU levels peak following rainfall at times of use, but where there are high levels of rainfall in the summer, there are no traces of IPU. "So the peaks this autumn relate to product that was applied around that time."

While it was disappointing, it was not surprising the chemical had been detected, he added. "People were obviously using up product that they had left as it was very expensive to dispose of - hopefully they will stop using it soon, because it shows the industry can't be trusted."

What is it that gets into the head of anyone when they are given some kind of official hat? What makes Nick Humphrey who, for all I know is a pleasant sensible chap, suddenly proclaim that the 'industry  can't be trusted'. Given that most people have a better sense of value than anyone in Whitehall could not this phenomenon equally show that the time given to the industry to use up expensive stock was insufficient? Was it not irresponsible of the Whitehall mandarins to expect ordinary people to waste an expensive purchase?

 That it the thing they think everyone would because they do all the time. It would have been better if they had offered a buy back program or something to make more people sell it back to them rather than risk using it. Then they could do what they like dispose of it or more than likely sell it to a country that its not banned in.

 Having witnessed urban gerdeners spraying their 'pristine' lawns with a myriad of chemicals, often with little regard to the instructions, I wonder how much of these chemicals end up leached into water courses?

It is a fair question to ask, and one of the good things about the new pesticide consultation is that amenity users could face much stricter controls in the future.

However, the metaldehyde story showed us that farmers, in that particular case anyway, caused far greater problems (probably due to the total amounts being applied being much higher) than garden use. The peaks in water from metaldehyde all came after peak agricultural use, and not after peak garden use.

It means we need to concentrate on putting our own house in order, and growers using IPU this autumn wasn't particularly clever, not least because of the implications for voluntary measures when regulating pesticides.

Not quite the case - if you delve into some of the findings which came about due to appeals over the enlarged NVZ's, you can find that towns and villages are a significant source of diffuse water pollution. Or is it point source - too much jargon. Point is banning townies is not a vote-winner. Garden use doesnt have a peak, rather it is constant low level use far in excess of the active ingreedient guidelines we follow under the safe pelleting scheme.

As the agencies involved have admitted not being able to identify individual farms where IPU has been illegally used, all their bark will have very little immediate bite.

They are going to get more peaks of single residuals if they keep removing chemicals from our portfolio. Less available actives will result in more use the the remaining ones, probably elevating them to troublesome levels. Result is they will be banned too. Try fighting resistant blackgrass without using ANY residual herbicide and see how long that can be sustained. The bells must be tolling for metazachlor and Kerb this year. But the policy makers must realise that if they get rid of say metaldehyde, then farmers will switch into methiocarb. Then how long until the beardies get upset about the death of all the insects, becuase thats not a nice chemical? Better to do like Avadex and ban the broadcast pelleters - pellets can easily be applied without any going into watercourses using a granular applicator similar to the ones people use to apply rapeseed behind a cultivator.