News In Brief... Paul Burgess awarded
Real Madrid Head Groundman Paul Burgess has won the 2015 Spanish Groundsman of the Year Award - awarded by La Asociacion Espanola De GreenKeepers.
Commenting on his Twitter account, the former Arsenal head groundsman said, “I’m very proud to win the Groundsman of the Year award here in Spain. A big thank you to my team; without them I’m nothing.”
Simmonds retires
A loyal groundsman renowned for his “excellent attitude” and being “enormously popular” has retired after 49 years of service at Salisbury Racecourse.
Michael Simmonds left the Wiltshire course following almost half a century’s service at the end of November, a day before he celebrated his 65th birthday.
Michael joined the Bibury Club as a trainee groundsman in 1966, as a 15-year-old.
Tesco pledge
Tesco has pledged to use the monies raised from the new 5p carrier bag charge to improve outdoor sports and other green community spaces across the UK.
A new law means that supermarket customers will have to pay 5p for every single use carrier bag, unless they reuse their own bags.
A spokesperson said Tesco - which has more than 3,500 stores in the UK - would pass on all of the revenue made from the bag charges to improve outdoor spaces.
RFU to take 3G route
Improvements to clubhouses, a focus on coaching and investment in artificial pitches have been highlighted as ways to improve and maintain adolescent participation in rugby.
During a presentation at Rugby Expo, Rugby Football Union (RFU) development director Steve Grainger MBE said the body was committed to its continued investment in facilities after ploughing £10m into clubhouse improvements since 2012.
He revealed that rugby clubs across the country had benefitted from a total investment of £38m after club volunteers raised a further £28m – an achievement Grainger hailed as “phenomenal”.
Artificial pitches would, according to the RFU, allow people to play when they wanted with fewer restrictions than turf pitches.
8 I PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2016 Reprieve for glyphosate?
EFSA find glyphosate ‘unlikely’ to be carcinogenic
EFSA and the EU Member States have finalised the re-assessment of glyphosate. The report concludes that glyphosate is unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans and proposes a new safety measure that will tighten the control of glyphosate residues in food.
The conclusion will be used by the European Commission in deciding whether or not to keep glyphosate on the EU list of approved active substances, and by EU Member States to re-assess the safety of pesticide products containing glyphosate that are used in their territories.
A peer review expert group, made up of EFSA scientists and representatives from risk assessment bodies in EU Member States, has set an acute reference dose (ARfD) for glyphosate of 0.5mg per kg of body weight, the first time such an exposure threshold has been applied to the substance.
Jose Tarazona, head of EFSA’s Pesticides Unit, said: “By introducing an acute reference dose, we are further tightening the way potential risks from glyphosate will be assessed in the
Tiggy-Winkle in trouble
New report finds a continuing decline in the UK hedgehog population
future. Regarding carcinogenicity, it is unlikely that this substance is carcinogenic.”
The peer review group concluded that glyphosate is unlikely to be genotoxic (i.e. damaging to DNA) or to pose a carcinogenic threat to humans. Glyphosate is not proposed to be classified as carcinogenic under the EU regulation for classification, labelling and packaging of chemical substances. In particular, all the Member State experts but one agreed that neither the epidemiological data (i.e. on humans) nor the evidence from animal studies demonstrated causality between exposure to glyphosate and the development of cancer in humans.
EFSA also considered, at the request of the European Commission, the report published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which
A new report by People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) shows a continuing decline in hedgehog numbers, in both rural and urban landscapes.
The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2015 follows the first comprehensive review of the status of hedgehogs nationally in 2011. Since this first report, several ongoing surveys by PTES
classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans.
The evaluation considered a large body of evidence, including a number of studies not assessed by the IARC, which is one of the reasons for reaching different conclusions.
Dr Tarazona added that EFSA will use the new toxicological values during its review of the maximum residue levels for glyphosate in food, which will be carried out in cooperation with Member States in 2016.
Next steps
The EFSA conclusion will inform the European Commission in deciding whether or not to retain the substance on the EU's list of approved active substances. This is a condition for enabling Member States to authorise its continued use in pesticides in the EU.
and others have shown a continuing population decline. The report paints a stark picture: since 2000, records of the species have declined by half in rural areas and by a third in urban ones.
The loss of hedgerows and intensive farming in rural areas, along with tidy fenced-in gardens in urban and suburban locations, are just some of the threats contributing to the demise of hedgehogs.
BASIS Points for magazine subscribers
*BASIS awards two CPD points for ‘paid for’ subscribers to the hard copy version of Pitchcare magazine, due to the “diverse range of content that relates to the control, management and use of pesticides”.
Subscribers can now obtain a further two valuable CPD points for their Professional register, simply by paying for a subscription to the ‘hard copy’ version of the Pitchcare magazine.
Anyone wishing to claim their points should email
their full name, BASIS membership number, date of birth and postcode to
editor@pitchcare.com.
*BASIS is an independent standards setting and auditing organisation for the pesticide, fertiliser and allied industries.
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