Women's Environmental Network Educating, empowering and informing women and men who care about the environment. Campaigning on environmental and health issues from a female perspective.
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This interview first appeared in WENnews, Spring 2001.
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Lindane - Banned in Europe but still in chocolate

With Easter around the corner demand for all things chocolate will soar. But how do you know the chocolate you buy does not contain Lindane? Thanks to continuing pressure from the Lindane Campaign, the pesticide has now been banned for agricultural and horticultural use throughout Europe. But it's still used in the South, especially on the cocoa crop. So the chocolate we eat may be contaminated.

In 1993 WEN highlighted the real cost of chocolate to workers' health from pesticide usage and unsafe work practices. WEN tested some well-known brands and found traces of Lindane. Several manufacturers at that time were asked if they tested their chocolate or were aware of the health impacts on cocoa workers. Responses indicated that manufacturers were open to persuasion about the safety of Lindane.

But chocolate testing by the UK Government in 1998 discovered all samples contained Lindane. Retailers may monitor their products regularly for pesticide residues but results are rarely published. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has described lindane as a possible human carcinogen; it is a known hormone disrupter and has been linked with breast cancer and birth defects. The decision to ban it for agricultural and horticultural use was based on an absence of safety data. It is still available for use in domestic products such as ant killer.

The Lindane Campaign Group are:
Breast UK e-mail:clare@solvatec.demon.co.uk
Friends of the Earth www.foe.org.uk
Green Network www.green-network.organics.org
Pesticides Action Network www.pan-uk.org
Soil Association www.soilassociation.org
UNISON e-mail:j.day@unison.co.uk
WEN e-mail: info@wen.org.uk

What you can do

  • If possible, only buy organic/fair trade chocolate.

    •
  • Help convince supermarkets and manufacturers that consumers want lindane-free chocolate by writing to them.

    • Ask these questions:
    1) Can you assure me that there is no Lindane in the chocolate you produce/sell?
    2) Can you guarantee that the farmers who supply you do not use Lindane on the cocoa crops?
    3) What do you do to help the cocoa growers to farm without using chemicals which may damage their health?
  • Contact WEN or The Lindane Campaign, UNISON, 6 Sherwood Rise, Nottingham NG7 6JS, for more information.

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