Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-22-Speech-1-119"
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"en.20071022.14.1-119"2
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".
Madam President, pesticide residues are now everywhere: in food, in water, in the air, in our body tissue and breast milk and – most frighteningly of all – in the bodies of our unborn children. We are only just beginning to glimpse the long-term consequences of this omnipresence of pesticide residues: they include various forms of cancer, endocrine disorders, reduced male fertility, damage to our immune systems, and degenerative diseases of the nervous system.
So, yes and yes again: let us reduce pesticide use and let us reduce it quickly. I fully support the proposals made by my colleague Mrs Hennicot on the Breyer report and, in the interests of saving time, I will highlight a further point which I consider vital and which has been discussed in the PPE Group – namely notification of people living near areas that are to be treated with pesticides. I believe that a section of our group is being unreasonable in recommending that no such notification is required, on the pretext that if the substances to be applied have prior approval it means they are not harmful.
Aerial spraying is commonplace, particularly in forests and vineyards. It entails a risk of substances being carried into inhabited or sensitive areas, so it must be strictly regulated. It is essential that growers should issue advance warning of pesticide spraying to people who live close by and are thus potentially exposed. People suffering from respiratory conditions such as asthma could be severely affected if they have no advance notice of such spraying. Conveying and presenting the information need not imply any additional administrative burden on farmers, as some of my fellow Members have suggested. Simple notices, stating the intended dates of the spraying, placed close to human habitation in the areas at risk, may be all that is needed.
I would like to conclude by urging that it is time to move on to a new generation of agricultural practices that respect the environment and thus play a part in modernising the farming sector."@en1
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