MOSCOW (Sputnik) – At least 500 farmers across the United Kingdom suffered debilitating health problems after using organophosphate-based chemicals for sheep dipping, a procedure to protect animals from vermin infestation, according to the daily.
The harmful chemicals were mandated by the British government until 1992 as officials claimed they did not know of possible health risks.
The Guardian reported that government officials had privately been warning of dangers to exposure of even low doses of the chemical.
A comprehensive 1999 study of ill health among sheep-dippers, commissioned from the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh, linked long-term illnesses, including dizziness and muscle problems, to repeated exposure of organophosphate-based chemicals.
The British government encouraged farmers to use these chemicals in dips since the early 1970s before scrapping its compulsory use in 1992.
