issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages the topic of this article may not meet wikipedia s notability guidelines for companies and organizations . please help to establish notability by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond its mere trivial mention . if notability can not be established the article is likely to be merged redirected or deleted . find sources pan britannica industries news newspapers books scholar jstor free images june 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . june 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message pan britannica industries ltd industry chemical fate acquired founded tennant group of companies 1 headquarters waltham cross united kingdom key people dr david gerald hessayon products kylage baby bio slug pellets website pbi home & garden ltd pan britannica industries ltd pbi was a small company which had 400 employees . it was a household and agrochemical formulation company based at britannica house stewardstone road waltham cross and with a distribution presence in wisbech in cambridgeshire . pbi was in common with many other uk household names both a manufacturer and marketing organisation for both agricultural and horticultural products . pbi produced many agro chemical formulations that were popular with farmers in many parts of the globe . however it was best known for its product baby bio a liquid plant food that came in a notable small perfume shaped bottle . other major products by pbi are the expert range of books such as the garden expert house plant expert greenhouse expert etc. written by dr d.g. hessayon who later became chairman of pbi . the motto of these books is easy to follow advice and information you can trust . with this in mind they are colourful informative and contain accurate product information and literature . 2 the company adopted this approach throughout all its products and brands . such an approach was in no small way attributable to dr. hessayon who was highly regarded within and outside both agriculture and horticulture for many years . the company was sold to the sumitomo corporation in the late eighties but continued to be run largely by the same management . it is now part of the bayer corporation which markets the best of its brands . the waltham abbey site has been redeveloped into a housing estate . there is still a presence in waltham cross called pbi home & garden ltd in the same building now renamed durkan house . similar uk operations were run by ici agriculture murphy chemical co allbright & wilson farm protection shell chemical company bp and fisons . some small scale horticultural products were also packaged at the waltham abbey plant including draza slug pellets for bayer agriculture now owner of the bio trade mark . companies such as elanco dupont rohm & haas and stauffer actually manufactured packaged and labelled the vast majority of chemical marketed by pbi . many of the products which pbi marketed gave it a very small player a strong market presence on the global agrochemicals scene . due to legislation many of the products have been discontinued in the west due to long term human health issues but were considered safe and manufactured by other companies around the world . now only the benign formulas like baby bio have continued availability . dr hessayon still writes expert books but these are now published by transworld . cancer allegations edit the company did have one negative brush with fame when its formulation plant in waltham abbey was alleged to be at the centre and therefore the cause of a cancer hotspot . 3 this was highlighted by storyline an investigative television programme by carlton television in early 1993 . reports of an unusual occurrence of cancer around the plant and subsequent legal action taken by the residents were the basis for this programme which was followed by several articles in the press . 4 the allegations were rejected by the then managing director mr. jeremy tear . no official body or agency then charged with the oversight of activities at the waltham abbey site had raised any concerns connected with the activity or safety procedures at the plant . references edit http www.tennantsdistribution.com http www.ourhouseplants.com guides hessayon http www.mcgraw hill.co.uk openup chapters 0335218423.pdf http www.independent.co.uk news uk inquiry is sought over pesticide cancer fears 1470365.html published paper wilkinson p thakrar b shaddick g stevenson s pattenden s landon m et al. 1997 . cancer incidence and mortality around the pan britannica industries pesticide factory waltham abbey . occup environ med 54 2 101 107 . pbi home & garden ltd bayer retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title pan britannica industries & oldid 717615880 categories bayer brandsagricultural chemicalsenvironmental chemistrydefunct manufacturing companies of the united kingdomhidden categories articles with topics of unclear notability from june 2010all articles with topics of unclear notabilityarticles needing additional references from june 2010all articles needing additional references navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a 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