HEAL Sick of Pesticides campaign is working with MDRGF. The launch of a "Victims of pesticides network" on 18 June 2009 in Paris was attended by 10 journalists, including Le Monde, AFP (the biggest French news agency) and two radio stations. Combined with an early announcement of the launch in Le Parisien on the day of the press conference, this led to two AFP articles, an article and interview in Le Monde, and pick up of the AFP articles in many regional newspapers and on websites.

Sick of pesticides campaign

The Global Medicine journal produced by the European Medical Students Association published an article entitled "Sick of pesticides" by Katrina Perehudoff and Genon Jensen, HEAL in April 2009.

Botanic, a magazine from a chain of gardening shops, featured our pesticides and cancer campaign in France in April 2009. The 60 Botanic shops in France are distributing 3,000 of our campaign postcards. The postcard is also downloadable from their website.

Le Vif L’Express, a Belgian monthly magazine highlighted the launch of the website Pesticides and Cancer campaign website and explained what it is trying to "contribute to bringing about a societal choice vis-à-vis the use of pesticides."

In the UK, the leading food industry publication "The Grocer" mentioned HEAL and its support for national action plans.

newspaper->http://www.lastampa.it/_web/cmstp/t...], in Galileo and in a Greek newspaper called "Real News" on our reaction to the positive EU parliamentary vote on pesticide regulation (13 January). We were also featured in Euractiv (a European policy website published in several languages), the Parliament.com news service, ENDS Europe report (press release with PAN Europe), and the industry website Chemicals Watch.

In France, success came with the radio and print media coverage of HEAL’s Pesticides and Cancer campaign during the Week without Pesticides (20-30 March 2009). François Veillerette, president of MDRGF, HEAL partner organisation in France, was interviewed about the joint campaign on pesticides and cancer on "France Inter" national radio on 26 March.

The campaign was also covered in Viva magazine, the publication of the cooperative health insurance companies (mutuelles) in France. The article described campaign activities and the postcard promoting pesticide free public spaces.

The Pesticides and Cancer campaign in the UK was covered in a feature article by Genon Jensen, HEAL Executive Director in the Environmental Health Practitioners journal of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). The story covered achievements in reducing the cosmetic use of pesticides from around the world and urged readers to support for HEAL’s campaign for ‘pesticides-free’ public spaces.

Another article by Genon Jensen was published in the UK’s Public Service Review: Science and Technology. Entitled Tracking Traces, it described why biomonitoring is important and how it could contribute to precautionary policy making.