Another ban on lily cultivation, now in a Limburg village

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L1mburg

NOS News•today, 3:24 PM

Lilies are not allowed to be grown next to a residential area in the Limburg village of Sevenum. The court in Roermond determined this.

According to the judge, there is a “real risk of damage to the health of local residents and their children” when using the pesticides used in cultivation. The judge therefore prohibited the use of the substances, which was the outcome in summary proceedings that local residents recently filed, reports L1 News.

It is the second time in a short time that a lily grower has had to back down. On March 27, a grower in Diever, Drenthe, did not receive permission from the municipality to grow lilies next to a primary school and playgroup.

In that case too, local residents feared that “long-term exposure to pesticides entails many additional risks for our health, especially for growing children.”

Lily growers argue that they adhere to all the rules when using pesticides. That is correct, the court in Roermond now states, but that does not alleviate the concerns of local residents. “The fact that the drugs have been tested and approved does not mean that the drugs are safe. When testing the drugs, they are not tested for neurological consequences that only occur in the long term, such as Parkinson’s disease. The tests also do not conducted research into developmental disorders of children,” the court said in the ruling.

The court refers to reports from the Health Council and the RIVM, which establish a link between pesticides, health complaints and developmental disorders in unborn children. According to the ruling, it specifically concerns seven of the approved substances that are risky.

A toxicologist who reviewed the list of pesticides on behalf of the court states that they “pose a real risk of serious neurological health damage. Not only for adults. The brain development of children can also be negatively affected during the mother’s pregnancy and while growing up. “

The underlying problem is that lily cultivation requires large amounts of pesticides: “In the five to six months that the grower wants to spray the lilies with the products weekly, as much is sprayed as for some other crops in ten years,” the court notes. .

For the grower in Sevenum, the ruling means that he cannot get started. The grower in Diever was offered a place on the other side of the village, far from buildings and places where many children come and play.