References to occupational exposures “Mission to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” The mission of the Special Rapporteur to the U.K. examined several worker rights-related issues. For workers who develop diseases from exposures to toxic chemicals at work, compensation, health care and other aspects of their right to an effective remedy can very often be unattainable. It is calculated that less than 1 per cent of sick workers receive compensation in the United Kingdom for non-asbestos-related occupational diseases. (A/HRC/36/41/Add.1) (2017) While the Health and Safety Executive has conservatively estimated that approximately 13,000 new cases of occupational disease arise each year, including cancers related to chemical exposure, alarming shortcomings in the United Kingdom compensatory system exclude many claimants due to disability thresholds, minimum exposure times and lack of recognition of elevated risks due to multiple exposures. The United Kingdom Industrial Injuries Advisory Council generally imposes a non-legal, non-scientific “relative risk” test, which requires that the condition be twice as common in the affected group as in the general population. Considering that this threshold is very difficult to meet, fewer occupational diseases are officially recognized in the United Kingdom compared with other countries that apply different criteria. In an example dating back to the 1980s, farmers and agricultural workers who believe they were affected by the use of organophosphate-based or “OP” pesticides in sheep dipping activities have faced severe difficulties in accessing an effective remedy. At the time, the United Kingdom Government ran a mandatory programme requiring farmers to chemically treat their sheep with pesticides to combat sheep scab. Most farmers used organophosphate-based dips to comply, as they were the only licensed products available initially. Organophosphate compounds were initially developed as neurotoxic chemical warfare agents due to their ability to inhibit blood cholinesterase activity. Over the next two decades, farmers reported a range of debilitating health problems, which they believed to be the result of poisoning from the organophosphate-based products, with symptoms including nausea, anxiety, pulmonary oedema and long-term neurological damage. Victim support groups compiled a list of more than 500 farmers believed to have suffered from ill health as a result of their exposure, although campaigners claim the real number to run in the thousands. Victims struggled to access appropriate treatment under the public health regime, as organophosphate poisoning was not considered to be a medical condition. Some were allegedly wrongly diagnosed as suffering from psychological issues and given medications that exacerbated their suffering. A number of individuals who were medically tested by the Government claim they experienced serious difficulties in obtaining the release of their medical records. The difficulty in establishing causation between chronic ill health and the use of organophosphatebased pesticides has seen many legal claims fail. In 2015, an internal report of the Health and Safety Executive of May 1991 was released under a freedom of information request, which established that government officials had warned of the dangers of exposure to organophosphate-based pesticides. Yet in the same month, the Minister of Farming demanded that local authorities clamp down on farmers who refused to use the chemical. The release of the internal report triggered calls by more than a dozen Members of Parliament for Challenges faced by workers • Inaccessible remedies, justice and accountability • Deliberate efforts to delay or obstruct protection from toxic exposure • Failures to realize the right to information • Limited progress in prevention of exposure A/HRC/39/48 54 Report