As we reported in our last issue (Food Magazine 45) a leaked confidential report from the EU confirms the chemical's harmful effects including damage to the nervous and immune systems, hormone disruption, birth defects and breast cancer.
However, its use as a spray on apples, wheat, maize and other crops, in timber treatment and for domestic pest control will be allowed to continue, despite the chemical being banned in many countries including Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden.
The Food Commission is calling for a complete ban on lindane. To add your support write to your MP at the House of Commons, London SW1A OAA.
They are asking everyone to go into their local garden centre or DIY store and search out ant or insect powder, flea killers or other insect sprays and fumigants as well as wood preservatives on sale to the general public which contain lindane or 'gamma HCH' as it is also known. Don't buy the product but send UNISON details of the product, its size and weight, price and details of where and when it was on sale, by 30 October 1999.
Lindane Campaign, UNISON, 15 Castle Gate, Nottingham NG1 6BY.