Panned on PAN alarm
The uk government has taken a tough stance against companies failing to legally disclose the side effects of pesticides in their products. Its Pesticides Safety Directorate (psd) recently withdrew from the uk market over 30 products manufactured by 13 companies on this ground. psd took the step following an alert by Pesticide Action Network (pan), a group fighting against the use of hazardous pesticides. It asked 184 companies to divulge the required information, which was anyway a legal necessity since 1998. But 13 companies didn't do so, despite being accorded several deadline extensions for the task. As a result, psd revoked all product approvals granted to them.
pan uk welcomed the move but cautioned: "...that the post-approvals monitoring system...has not been operating properly is a great cause for concern.'