amicide

[Pro Gard]

"A friend of mine a farm labourer who sprayed burnt the inside of his nose and lost his sense of smell then he had cancer of the bowel, then lungs then spine then he died aged 54 one month before a dream holiday to australia. we all do some things we should not but we should think hard on the advise given"

 

But were the above ailments caused by the chemicals he sprayed or is it simply supposition that they were?

 

Alarmist reactions to chemicals only result in them being withdrawn and the loss of usefull 'tools' take for instance strychnine hydrochloride or cymag both previously used in pest control.

[David oakman]

I am not trying to be an alarmist it might of been it might not who knows. All i am saying is if we are given advise we should think on it,i am only human i do things i shoul not do but i try to think about the whole picture and make the right choice:001_smile:

[Albedo]

Dave G. When I said

 

Quote: 'Gets me posting away like crazy when people make strong statements, stated as fact and often unreferenced, especially if they are poorly researched or debatable'.

 

I nearly added, that I wasn't accusing you of all of the above, but didn't in the interest of shortening things. Just the strong statement one would have done, and perhaps the debatable one as someone pointed out, these forums are for a bit of debate. Not surprised it annoyed you a bit to feel accused of all of those things all at once.

 

You are saying quote:'....rather to highlight the requirements placed upon us, as professionals, to work within legal constraints. The Pesticides Safety Directorate states that all pesticides must be approved for use'.

 

My whole point is that government approval is not the be all and end all. If someone reads on this forum that I am using salt as a stumpicide without DEFRA approval, I don't believe that they should find that unprofessional. What is organic farming all about if not questioning standard practice. Does this make organic farmers unprofessional.

 

I have assumed throughout that salt is relatively harmless. Some points have been raised debating this, so it may turn out that I'm wrong. One point to bear in mind is that a lot of stuff ends up in the sea thru the hydrologic cycle, All the DEFRA stuff does harm when it gets there, I don't think anyone is going to argue that salt does the same.

 

Your'e right about pesticides being used as a coverall term. I'll check out the references for information you have given as you do have some stuff I didn't know and I'm sure we do have lots of common ground as you say. I'd be interested to know why salt had its approval revoked.

[Dave.G.]

Not sure why any pesticide is revoked, can't find any reference as to why. I agree about government approval but if we use 'stuff' outside approval then should we broadcast it on a forum? We all cut corners but where do we draw the line? If salt is OK why not diesel? Amcide was recommended to me earlier this year for the control of horsetail (equisetum) and i found out where i could get hold of it and was very tempted but i made my choice and feel that everyone else should be aware of the facts before making theirs

[skyhuck]

If salt is OK why not diesel?

 

Are you for real!!????

 

Which would you put on your chips??

[Dave.G.]

Trying to find out exactly why Cymag was withdrawn or even banned but i can't. I think from memory it was because of secondary poisoning which you don't get with the new Phosphide gases

[Dave.G.]

Are you for real!!????

 

Which would you put on your chips??

just trying to work out the boundary.

[Albedo]

I am just making a post to see if I get get the amcide issue on to page 8.

Thus making this thread longer and therefore officially more interesting than Mr Ed's thread about his new firewood chipper/processor, which currently also rests on page 7.

 

damn not quite!

Edited November 16, 2008 by Albedo
no good reason

[Buzz]

I was involved in commercial spraying for over 10 years. Mainly on Heathland Project so Timbrel, Roundup Biactive-pro and Asulox where the order of the day.

 

We had to wear full nylon suits and rspirators when spraying Asulox on bracken, even know if i close my eyes i can still taste that awful stuff and smell it

 

For stump treatment in arb I have always painted stumps with neat roundup, that is all that is required.

 

It would be interesting to run a poll and see how many arb contractors hold nptc spraying tickets versus the number that treat stumps.

 

I'm not saying that those who are un-trained and treat stumps aren't competent but you can get in a hell of a lot of trouble if you use chemicals without the correct protocol in place.

 

I use amicide crystals on sycamore stumps etc when i worked for a LA some 9 years ago.

 

I didn't like it because the crystals encouraged scavenging from mammals and birds and also the general public and children often fiddled wondering what the hell it was in a hole in a stump. Obviousley in Mrs Jones's back garden this wouldn't be an issue but we went over to Roundup which is approved for this use on the product label.

[David oakman]

ditto buzz i paint neat roundup