The committee should have examined the accumulating evidence that OPs present too many risks

Paul Tyler MP

The committee wants the pesticide dips put back on sale in "suitably designed containers" as soon as possible.

Farmers are required by law to dip their sheep each year to protect the animals against infestation by insects and diseases such as sheep scab.

Until last year, most farmers used chemicals containing OPs, which many believe to be the only effective way of ridding sheep of parasites.

But after reports of skin disorders, the Ministry of Agriculture banned the dip because the containers allowed the chemical to splash onto farmers' hands and arms.

Tuesday's select committee report says the MPs do not dismiss the "suffering of those whose ill-health has been linked to OP sheep dips.

"But we believe it to be to the general benefit that OP sheep dip concentrates are restored to the market in suitably designed containers, together with all other practical precautionary measures."

Alternative treatments

However, the environmental group, Friends of the Earth, believes that even with better containers, OPs still will not be safe.

Spokesman Pete Riley told the BBC: "Farmers' health is not only affected when they are mixing chemicals for the bath but when handling the sheep when they come out and dealing with the liquid afterwards.

"We need to have a long hard look at how we manage the problems in sheep and look at other means of treatment - on mainland Europe they use injections."

The select committee's report has also angered Liberal Democrat MP Paul Tyler, who has led an eight-year campaign to secure a moratorium on the use of OPs until they are proved safe.

The North Cornwall MP said: "At a time when every ounce of ingenuity and enterprise should be devoted to the replacement of OPs by treatments which are safer to humans but equally effective on sheep, wasting time arguing over the design of concentrate containers is criminal folly.

"In the interests of both animal welfare and human safety, the committee should have examined the accumulating evidence that OPs present too many risks, whatever the safeguards, and should not have ducked the real issue."

Gulf War Syndrome

Scientists have been unable to agree about the danger of low level exposure to OPs. The government's Committee on Toxicity decided last November that more research was needed.

Farmers who say they have been affected complain of chronic fatigue, memory loss and congenital defects in their children.

Some Gulf War veterans have reported similar symptoms and linked them to being sprayed with OPs during the conflict.

Tuesday's report from the agriculture select committee also called for a "Plan B" to be devised in case of a major outbreak of sheep scab while farmers were still without OP dips.