Campaign to weed out chemicals
ACTIVISTS’ PETITION TO STOP USING HERBICIDES SNUBBED
ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have implored Newcastle City Council to stop spraying ‘harmful’ weed killers that have been linked to causing cancer by a US court.
Green activists claim that the local authority is putting residents and its own staff at risk by using toxic pesticides in the city.
The Pesticide-Free Newcastle campaign is now calling on Civic Centre bosses to follow other councils in ending their use of glyphosate-based herbicides, which it says cause “incontrovertible” harm to humans and nature.
Last year, a US court found chemical giant Monsanto liable for the cancer of a terminally ill former groundskeeper, who was awarded $78m in damages after alleging that his disease was caused by the chemicals in their Roundup weed killer.
Newcastle City Council maintains that similar glyphosatebased products it uses are safe, but opponents say that spraying them is not worth the risk.
John Wilson, chair of the Newcastle Green Spaces Initiative, said: “We should stop using these harmful chemicals immediately and manage our land with the other resources we have available. It is incontrovertible that they are harmful to humans and to nature.
“This is something that the council could do right away. Problems like air pollution are going to take a lot of time and a lot of money to resolve, but this is something that the council has the power to change now. There are other options available.
“I have got a sense of how the public feels about this issue and almost everybody says that if there is another way of doing this work without using harmful chemicals then the council should be doing it.”
European safety authorities have deemed glyphosate safe to use, but the World Health Organisation says it is probably carcinogenic to humans.
A number of councils in the UK – including Croydon, Edinburgh, and Glastonbury – are taking steps to ditch the controversial herbicides, but Newcastle has so far refused to follow suit.
Mr Wilson added: “Even if you only accept that it might be a risk then that should be enough for the council. They don’t know how dangerous it is, they probably haven’t looked at the science in much detail. But if there are alternatives that are definitely safe, why would they not use them?”
Mr Wilson has collected hundreds of petitions supporting the pesticide-free campaign, but was told by Coun Nick Kemp – the council’s cabinet member for environment – earlier this year that the council has been assured that its products are not dangerous.
A spokesperson for Newcastle City Council said: “We handle all matters of public health with the utmost sincerity as the health and safety of all our residents and staff is paramount.
“We only use products in this manner that enjoy the approval of the European Chemicals Agency and the European Food Safety Authority. The information from which we are able to base our decisions tells us that the Glyphosate products we use are safe.
“If we had reason to believe otherwise we would of course not be using them.”