Miss Downs was celebrating last November when a top judge ruled the government had failed to comply with EU rules which state rural residents and communities should be protected from possible harmful exposure to toxic chemicals during crop-spraying.
But this week, lawyers for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said it would be launching an appeal against the ruling. Acting for Defra, Robert Jay QC, told three High Court judges there was 'no solid evidence' of a link between crop-spraying and damage to human health and said fears of the link were 'anecdotal'.

He said Defra was concerned that if last year's decision was upheld, the government's pesticides policy would be 'fundamentally undermined' and could even grind to a halt.

Miss Downs said she was 11 years old when first exposed to pesticide spraying and began to suffer from ill-health including flu-like symptoms, a sore throat, blistering and other problems.

She accused the government of failing to address the concerns of rural residents who were 'repeatedly exposed to mixtures of pesticides and other chemicals throughout the year'.

Miss Downs launched her independent UK Pesticides Campaign in 2001 and has won numerous awards for her work.

She collected evidence of other rural residents reporting health problems including cancer, Parkinson's disease, ME and asthma they believe could be linked to crop-spraying.

In last year's momentous case, High Court judge Justice Collins said Defra was not doing enough to assess the potential for harmful effects on human health before authorising new pesticides for use on UK farms.
Mr Jay said methods Defra used for assessing the safety of pesticides were the 'most protective' available.

He also said practical difficulties were increased by Mr Justice Collins' failure to give any guidance on what needed to by done to comply with the law.

Michael Fordham QC, acting for Miss Downs, said one of the major flaws in Defra's risk assessment policy was it targeted the health impact on farmers and other pesticide users, rather than rural residents.

He said safety tests based on five minutes of exposure to single pesticides did nothing to address the risks to rural residents 'who are repeatedly exposed'.

The hearing continues and is expected to last four days. Lady Justice Arden, Lord Justice Keene and Lord Justice Sullivan are expected to make their decision at a later date.


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