Pesticide in Water Alert

Archived

Monday, 16 February 2004

Pesticide Action Network UK has written urgently to health chiefs in the Newcastle region to demand action over a "tumour-promoting" chemical polluting the water of 600,000 people.

Isoproturon is in drinking water above the legal limit, but Northumbrian Water's treatment works, to remove it, will not be completed for another three years. In the meantime, levels of the chemical are exceeding the interim limit the company has been set.

"Isoproturon is a carcinogenic tumour-promoting pesticide, and we are very concerned about long-term exposure", says Alison Craig of PAN UK. "We are especially worried about its possible impacts on children under ten who could have been exposed to it all their lives, even in the womb".

"We have asked the health authorities to support our call for a ban on isoproturon, and for bottled water to be provided. We have asked them to look at cancer figures, particularly in children".

Full press release at:
http://www.pan-uk.org/press/isoprot.htm