A TIRELESS Callington campaigner is celebrating a major breakthrough in her efforts to prove that a pesticide, in common use throughout the country, is linked to horribly debilitating illnesses suffered by thousands of agricultural workers.

Elizabeth Sigmund has been working for the last ten years in an effort to get the Government to acknowledge the terrible effects of organophosphates — an agent used extensively in chemical warfare — on farm workers, and especially sheep farmers who were obliged by law to use OP sheep dips for more than 16 years until 1992.

Last week, the Government finally announced funding for a £250,000 project to try to establish whether or not there is a causal link between exposure to organophosphates and the health problems reported by agricultural workers nationwide.

Dr Tony Fletcher, head of the environment epidemiology unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, will lead a team of specialist doctors and scientists in the project — something Mrs Sigmund's group, the OP Information Network, demanded more than two years ago.

SHAPE — the Survey of Health And Pesticide Exposure — will interview 1,100 people, mostly farmers, from all over the country listed on a database compiled by Mrs Sigmund over the last decade.

They hope to establish the level of exposure to OPs and the extent of health problems. Fifty people will undergo clinical assessment of their conditions.

Mrs Sigmund's involved began in 1990.

'I was involved in an independent committee looking at chemical and biological weapons. Nerve gases use organophosphates and I learned a lot about them from that. I was appalled to think of one of the most lethal weapons being handed out to farmers, who were obliged to use them,' she said.

OPs are powerful pesticides used for crop-spraying, bug control in orchards and domestic gardens, and domestic fly and ant preparations. They were also thought to be the only cure for sheep scab, so the Government forced sheep farmers to use OP-based sheep dips in 1976. By 1992, it was clear even OPs were ineffective and the law was changed.

Symptoms of OP poisoning include memory loss, agitation, depression, and atrial fibrillation, where the heart speeds up as a result of neurological damage — sometimes thought to be a heart attack, extreme pain in the joints and muscles, trembling, headaches.

'They are horrible, serious symptoms,' said Mrs Sigmund.

She is hopeful the survey will get to the heart of the matter — it is exactly what she requested of the Government more than two years ago.

'I'm sure it will. At least 1,100 questionnaires will be sent out with follow-ups by phone to make sure people can manage the forms,' said Mrs Sigmund.

'What it will show is the similarity of symptoms of people who have proven use of OPs,' she said.

Mrs Sigmund's hope is that people suffering from the effects of OPs will get confirmation of what they have long suspected, and that doctors will get information that allows them to understand the conditions.

'Some are very sympathetic, but there are a lot who don't really know what farmers mean when they say they have been affected by OPs,' said Mrs Sigmund.

She said one of the farmers on her database had gone to hospital suffering serious effects of the poisoning and when he told the doctor, the doctor didn't believe anybody could have come into contact legally with such a dangerous chemical.

Mrs Sigmund said the Government should consider banning OPs and farmers who were obliged to use these chemicals should be compensated.