Pressure builds over OPs

05 August 1997

Pressure builds over OPs

AGRICULTURE Minister Jack Cunningham is being pressed over organophosphates (OPs).

Following the suicide of a Scottish MP who reportedly believed he was suffering from symptoms brought on by the pesticides, the Liberal Democrat leader of the Commons All-Party group on OPs has asked Dr Cunningham to comment on a Hong Kong case involving these products. The case, against Ciba-Geigy, resulted in damages awarded in favour of a musician found to have suffered severe disability after exposure to an OP pesticide.

Dr Cunningham was asked to act to end the “misery” of alleged OP sufferers in the UK, including farmers.