The European Court of First Instance "annulled the 2003 authorization of the deadly herbicide paraquat, ruling that the authorization was based on a flawed assessment of the risks to agricultural workers and to the environment". More from IUF. Syngenta says it will appeal
The second reason given by the judgement referred to 'the exceedance of the AOEL'. (Click the left hand navigation or "UKs ACP", and search for 'AOEL' to tell you all about the 'Acceptable Operator Exposure Level'). In one study - when being used in properly controlled conditions, monitors found that the AOEL was being exceeded. This is v. important as the AOEL is the level at which no effects (supposedly) occur - so any exceedance automatically says the level will cause some adverse effects occur on workers.
In the UK, while on the UK's Advisory Committee on Pesticides, I found that virtually no health monitoring occurs - even in UK. It is presumed (using modelling) that levels of pesticides do not excced the AOEL. So, we find - from a study in Guatamala, workers while working under proper conditions, are getting excessive exposure.
