The final item on the agenda is petition PE148, in the name of William Anderson, co-ordinator of the Organophosphate Information Network (Scotland). This petition has been referred in the first instance to the Health and Community Care Committee, to which we are required to pass our comments. This might be a good time to ask for any declarations of interest. You are not a sheep dip user, are you, John?
No.
A most useful research note from the Scottish Parliament information centre is attached to the petition, and sets out relevant information on the subject. As the covering note points out, committee members should consider whether they want to express support for the principles of the petition, or highlight any issues contained in the petition, to the Health and Community Care Committee. Are there any issues that members want to highlight?
This is an important issue and much more research must be done. At the moment, most of the information about organophosphates is speculative. Many people are suffering from illnesses whose cause cannot be pinned down. We should support the petition and ask the Health and Community Care Committee to investigate the issue.
I wholeheartedly support Rhoda Grant's point of view. There is a great deal of concern and apprehension about organophosphates. Until extensive research has clarified the situation, people will suggest that the organophosphates are responsible for many of the illnesses that currently affect people.
If organophosphates are responsible, we must find out about it and take steps to ensure that people are protected. That is the danger. If there is a problem, nobody has yet pinned it down. There is still no way of dealing with the problem, and more people could be affected by it.
There is pressure from certain quarters to make organophosphates available as a sheep dip again. The House of Commons Select Committee on Agriculture supported that view, and it was certainly a great surprise to me that it took that step, given the level of knowledge and understanding behind that decision. I have no personal objection to supporting the principles behind the petition.
I think that we should support the petition.
Let us therefore express to the Health and Community Care Committee our support for the principles of the petition. Is that agreed?
Meeting closed at 12:11.
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