PARIS: The French government yesterday ordered a three-month ban of a widely used pesticide after dozens of people, many of them farm workers, fell ill in western France in recent weeks, reports AFP. The move came after metam sodium was suspected when victims reported burning eyes and respiratory difficulties near Angers, an area which produces huge amounts of lamb’s lettuce, also known as cornsalad.

The salad green is popular on French and European tables, and producers often spread metam sodium powder on the ground to protect the plants against a wide range of insects. But the product, one of the most widely used pesticides in the US and Europe, is considered a “probable human carcinogen” by the US Environmental Protection Agency and is not meant to be applied directly to plants. Of the 61 reported cases, 17 people had to be briefly hospitalised, prompting local authorities to suspend metam sodium use earlier this month.