• IT is encouraging to hear that Islington Council now wants to “use as little herbicide as possible” according to Cllr Claudia Webbe (We want to reduce the use of glyphosate in borough, Letters, July 12).

Attitudes have significantly changed from three years ago when I brought a motion to Islington full council to cease the use of glyphosate on the grounds that glyphosate is a probable carcinogen. Several councillors took the opportunity to dismiss my concerns and all 47 voted against it.

However Cllr Webbe cites a European Chemical Agency study from 2017 that concluded “the available scientific evidence did not meet the criteria to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen” and then goes on to state that alternatives to glyphosate require expensive equipment and the cuts mean that services would have to be cut to pay for this equipment.

Much of the debate around glyphosate has focused on whether it causes cancer.

Independent scientists from around the world largely agree that long-term exposure to glyphosate is harmful to human health.

Advice from the World Health Organisation, as well as a number of high-profile legal cases, have led people, quite rightly, to question its continued use in our streets, parks and estates.

The London Assembly unanimously agreed my recent motion to ask the mayor to stop spraying glyphosate on his land and to work with London Councils to cease the spraying of glyphosate on council land.

Surely Islington should be taking a precautionary approach and cease the spraying of glyphosate which exposes residents and workers to potential harm.

For invasive species, like Japanese knotweed, it is possible to use glyphosate by stem injection rather than spraying. This massively reduces the risk to workers and targets the weedkiller at the problem species.

Neighbouring borough Hackney is addressing glyphosate concerns by simply cutting back on weeding. They have identified a quarter of their weeding location list and stopped weeding those places and are looking to expand the list.Weeds produce flowers, they provide forage for bees and play a crucial part in sustaining the biodiversity of our borough.

Simply reducing the places that are sprayed with glyphosate would reduce the exposure of workers and residents to a herbicide about which there are serious health concerns. Our streets may look a bit less manicured but our workers would be protected, we’d all be less exposed to herbicide harm and the bees would be happy.

Cllr CAROLINE RUSSELL AM
Green Party, Highbury East ward