Brian Anderson: "Left in limbo"

OPIN - the Organophosphate Information Network - represents around 100 people in Scotland who are reported to be suffering chronic effects from exposure to organophosphates or OPs.

They say nothing has been done about a 1998 Royal Colleges report which called for diagnosis and treatment centres for sufferers.

Mr Anderson said: "Sufferers feel they are bring treated with contempt by the authorities.

"They have been poisoned through contact with a product that has been licensed by the authorities and yet the authorities are doing nothing to help them.

"They are being left in limbo."

Organophosphates are the same compounds which are believed to have caused Gulf War Syndrome.

Chronic fatigue

Although the chemicals are no longer used in sheep dip, many farmers blame exposure to them for chronic fatigue, neurological disorders and depression.

It was revealed in 1997 that 60 sheep dippers in the Western Isles were suffering from the chronic fatigue syndrome ME - four times the national average.

The chemicals are also believed to have played a part in Paisley South MP Gordon McMaster's suicide.

The former horticultural worker said he suffered severe depression after using organophosphates in garden pesticides.