It's time to put children's health before pesticides | Baskut Tuncak

A pending decision on Monsanto's ubiquitous weedkiller is a crucial opportunity to protect our children from the toxic cocktail of pesticides polluting their food, water and play areas

Our children are growing up exposed to a toxic cocktail of weedkillers, insecticides, and fungicides. It's on their food and in their water, and it's even doused over their parks and playgrounds. Many governments insist that our standards of protection from these pesticides are strong enough. But as a scientist and a lawyer who specialises in chemicals and their potential impact on people's fundamental rights, I beg to differ.

Last month it was revealed that in recommending that glyphosate - the world's most widely-used pesticide - was safe, the EU's food safety watchdog copied and pasted pages of a report directly from Monsanto, the pesticide's manufacturer. Revelations like these are simply shocking.