South Dublin council urged to stop use of controversial weedkiller glyphosate
A motion which seeks to ban the use of the controversial weedkiller by the council was passed yesterday at a special meeting of the authority.
Glyphosate is used by the council and its contractors to control invasive plant species, along with weed control along footpaths and roads around the authority area.
Introducing the motion, People Before Profit councillor Darragh Adelaide said: 'Over the last couple of years, there's been increasing evidence, study after study about the really detrimental effects on people's health of glyphosate. Not just related to cancer, but also neurotoxicity and damage to reproductive health.'
"In testing actually done or funded by Uplift, every single person who they tested, all except one, had some concentration of glyphosate in their system,' he said.
"Workers who are working full-time with glyphosate, they wear PPE, they have all sorts of protections, whereas regular people, we pick it up from food, we pick it up from being sprayed on the side of roads, and there's very little protection there.'
Independent councillor Alan Edge said that it was 'quite clear' that glyphosate caused health issues.
"What's clear as well is that glyphosate is being used by contractors who are doing verges along roadsides and footpaths.
"One obvious fact is that you have gutters and gullies and they tell us that if you throw a cigarette butt or piece of chewing gum into one of those, you're effectively throwing it into the river or into the sea.
'We know that it has a negative impact on aquatic life, on amphibians, and when we are doing so much and leading as a local authority in terms of our biodiversity, I think we really do have to say that the time has come to put a stop to the use of glyphosate,' he said.
Responding to the motion, SDCC senior engineer Leo Magee said that his understanding of glyphosate was that its human health impacts were 'not conclusive', but that the council was already reducing its usage.
"Over the last three years we've achieved a 13pc reduction in the use of glyphosate,' he said.
"What we're focusing on now, and it's set down in the road sweeping contract, is a condition within the terms of that contract that requires the service provider to achieve a 10pc reduction each year.
"The road sweeping contract uses about 90pc of the use of glyphosate by the council and if we can reduce that by 50pc over the five years of the contract that will be a very substantial achievement'.
Mr Magee said glyphosate was currently the only effective way of controlling Japanese knotweed, and that the council had trialled several other methods but those had been unsuccessful.
SDCC elected members in 2017 passed a motion to ban the weedkiller within public parks, public gardens and public playgrounds.
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