Is the threat of a Silent Spring really behind us? March 21, 2011

Dr. Keith Tyrell, Director of Pesticide Action Network UK, will discuss pesticides.

Pesticides are the only chemicals deliberately made to be toxic and introduced directly into the environment. They are used in agriculture, in homes, and in urban areas to kill or control insects, weeds and diseases. Pesticides are used everywhere: in crops and carpets, boats and bananas, and unwanted residues can be found in humans, water, food, air and soil.
 
PAN UK is the only organisation in Britain dedicated to raising awareness of the problems with pesticides as part of a global network. They work closely with partners in developing countries, where pesticide problems are sometimes far worse. In developing countries there are as many as three million poisonings and 20,000 deaths each year from pesticide incidents. Unnecessary use puts farmers on an expensive pesticide treadmill.
 
Over 800 different chemicals are made globally and sold in tens of thousands of mixtures.
http://www.pan-uk.org/
 
‘What we have to face is not an occasional dose of poison which has accidentally got into some article of food, but a persistent and continuous poisoning of the whole human environment’

First published in 1962, Rachel Carson’s scientifically passionate exposure of the effects of the indiscriminate use of chemicals is still of vital importance. In her vivid and well-informed text she describes how pesticides and insecticides are applied almost universally to farms, forests, gardens and homes with scant regard to the consequent contamination of our environment and the widespread destruction of wildlife. She argues that unless we recognize that human beings are only a part of the living world, our progressive poisoning of the planet will end in catastrophe. Silent Spring remains the classic statement which founded a whole movement and should be read by everyone who is concerned about the future of our world.’
Courtesy of Penguin Science

Please park in Prittlewell Chase and use the Fairfax Drive entrance.

Non-members £2.00 - everybody is welcome!