Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-23-Speech-2-158"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20071023.20.2-158"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, I feel very disappointed that Parliament has not done more today on this pesticides package. On so many of the more radical and progressive issues, we could have gone very much further. But the one area that I want to focus on just now is the area of residents. They should be regarded as a specifically vulnerable group, an exposure group in their own right, and a small step has been taken today in order to do that, in the vote that we have just had in this Parliament.
People who live near schools where nearby fields are sprayed and people who work or live near sprayed fields have an enormously high exposure to pesticides. They are exposed, on a long-term basis, to mixtures or cocktails of pesticides that are sprayed in their locality throughout the year and, in many cases, for decades.
Until now there has not been any protection for residents as a specific exposure group. This is a major and serious public health issue, as farmers clearly cannot control pesticides once they are airborne, and studies have shown pesticides can travel in the air for miles. I wish we had gone further in terms of our ban on all aerial spraying.
There have been many reports over the decades of acute and chronic ill-health in rural areas. Our Parliament could have done much more in this vote today to protect people from cancers, from leukaemia, from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a whole range of other diseases, and I am very disappointed indeed that we did not take up that option, which had been put forward in the Committee on the Environment. So many of those more positive measures have, sadly, been overturned by the other groups.
But I hope that people will look at the Parliament today and put pressure on their representatives so that, when we come back to a second reading, we can try and do better by the health of people. They expect us to do better. We should have done better, and I am very sorry the other groups did not support us today."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples