Forestry workers in Western Australia are still using the herbicide glyphosate despite the chemical’s safety being under review by the national regulator. Source: ABC News
The World Health Organisation’s cancer research arm last year found glyphosate was probably carcinogenic.
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) is now reviewing the safety of the chemical.
Last week, Forest Products Commission (FPC) workers began aerial spraying of glyphosate over pine plantations near Southampton Homestead, an organic farm near Balingup.
WA Nationals leader and Warren-Blackwood MP, Terry Redman, has defended the use of the chemical.
“FPC’s done everything it possibly can in terms of managing its relationship with neighbours in proximity to its plantation forestry,” he said.
“I’m very confident that everything’s been done to work through the issues.
“I’m aware of the concerns from the organic farmer and I’d like to think that over time those issues won’t be something that impedes [their] capacity to manage their farming business.”
Mr Redman said the FPC would not reconsider the chemical’s use unless the regulator found it to be unsafe.
“It’s assessed as a safe chemical to use under the conditions that it’s prescribed, and therefore that’s what we abide by if we are using them in Australia,” he said. “If anything changes in that assessment of course we have to respond to it.”
A spokeswoman from APVMA has told the ABC the review of glyphosate was taking longer than first expected.
The European Union is currently taking steps to ban glyphosate, and it has already been banned or restricted in some parts of Europe and in Sri Lanka.
