THE father of ME victim Carli Barry has backed calls for people to be given better protection from crop spraying.

But Geoffrey Barry said he feared the Government will ignore the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP), which include calls for a five-metre no-spray zone between fields and homes.

"It will cost money and end up being left on the shelf," he said.

Mr Barry and his wife Sheila, of Huby, near Easingwold, have always been convinced that their daughter developed ME - otherwise known as chronic fatigue syndrome - after being exposed to pesticide spraying as a girl.

She committed suicide in York by taking an overdose in 2001 on her 27th birthday, after battling for years against the condition and suffering from depression.

York Coroner Donald Coverdale said he believed she had become worn down by her condition.

The RCEP has called for a code of practice used by farmers should to be strengthened so that people living next to fields get advance warning if the area is to be sprayed.

Outgoing chairman Sir Tom Blundell said: "No one can dispute that those individuals who have reported ill health, which they claim is due to pesticides being sprayed, are genuinely ill.

"Based on our personal examination of some of these cases, and on our current understanding of the effects that pesticides can have on the body system, it is not implausible that there may be a link between pesticide spraying and chronic ill health.

"The commission has found at the least that such a link cannot be summarily dismissed without new evidence."

He said Government policy on exposure of bystanders and local residents was currently inadequate. "Measures such as five metre no-spray zones between fields and homes will deliver a significant improvement."

The commission is also calling for:

Tightening and better enforcement of the rules governing the use of pesticides on farms

A better system of advice within the NHS for members of the public who believe that their ill health is a result of pesticide spraying, as well as improved methods of reporting these cases to the regulator

More research to reduce the uncertainties relating to the effects of pesticides on the health of those living near to sprayed fields.

Mr Barry said measures such as a five-metre no-spray zone were excellent proposals, but he doubted the Government would go ahead and introduce them.

Updated: 10:35 Saturday, September 24, 2005