A campaigner against pesticides has criticised a report dismissing the need for a spraying safety zone.

Georgina Downs, 32, from Runcton, near Chichester, has had chronic health problems since inhaling pesticides as a child.

She said a report released today by the independent Advisory Committee on Pesticides (ACP) is misleading and "grossly insulting" to those affected by the sprays.

The brief has been produced in response to a highly critical report last year, which attacked the ACP's advice to the Government.

This report, by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, concluded crop spraying was a potential health risk.

The commission suggested a five-metre (16ft) buffer zone around fields where crops were being sprayed. Ms Downs said even this was inadequate and some states in the USA required buffer zones of up to 2.5 miles around schools.

Today's ACP report, commissioned by the Government, said the five-metre suggestion is "arbitrary, inadequately based on scientific evidence and a disproportionate response to scientific uncertainty".

Professor David Coggon, who chaired the committee from 2000 to 2005, said: "If we thought current margins gave insufficient protection to neighbours, we wouldrecommend the use (of pesticides) be banned rather than relying on a buffer zone to reduce exposure."

The ACP's report suggests a buffer zone could be placed around residential properties on "social grounds" as people's anxiety about pesticides could be affecting their health and well-being.

Ms Downs has collected a database of 750 people across rural England who have suffered symptoms including burning eyes, nausea and flu-type illnesses, as well as clusters of cancers and neurological problems. She is calling for an immediate ban on crop spraying and pesticides near any places of human habitation.

She said: "The ACP continues to maintain that a robust system is in place to protect health. This is misleading, not factually correct and demonstrates the ACP's continued complacency."

The Rev John Elson's vocal cords were irreparably burnt by pesticides 16 years ago, forcing him to retire early from his ministry.

Mr Elson, from Uckfield, was caught in a cloud of pesticides sprayed over 15 metres away. He said: "If someone from the Government had spraying in the fields next to their house and one of their family was affected, something would be done pretty quickly."

Ms Downs has applied for a judicial review against an earlier Government decision on pesticide protection.