The French government on last Friday ordered a three-month ban of a widely used fumigant after dozens of people, many of them farm workers, fell ill in western France in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
The metam-sodium ban came after victims near the city of Angers reported symptoms such as burning eyes and respiratory difficulties. The surrounding region is a producer of lamb\u2019s lettuce, a salad green popular on French and European tables. Farmers growing this crop often spread metam-sodium powder on the ground to protect the plants against a wide range of insects.<\/p>\n
But the product, one of the most widely used pesticides in the US and Europe, is considered a “probable human carcinogen” by the US Environmental Protection Agency and is not meant to be applied directly to plants.<\/p>\n
There have been at least three outbreaks of illness in the Maine-et-Loire region since late September, possibly because the product was improperly applied on land that was too dry during a period of unseasonably warm weather, French officials said.<\/p>\n
61 reported cases<\/p>\n
Of the 61 reported cases, 17 people had to be briefly hospitalised, prompting local authorities to suspend metam-sodium use earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The national ban “is a wise decision for the health of our farm workers and citizens,” local lawmakers in President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“We now need to help producers to quickly roll out existing alternatives” to the pesticide, they said.<\/p>\n
Metam-sodium, sold under brand names including Vapam and Sectagon, is authorised in the EU until 2022, when it will come up for review by regulators.<\/p>\n
Source: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"