Trevor Hancock: We need to investigate links between chemical industry, governments

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Health Canada and its Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency see industry and its trade secrets as more worthy of protection than the health of Canadians and their environment

Over 40 years ago, in the early 1980s, I co-led a major report on “Our Chemical Society” for the City of Toronto’s Department of Public Health.

I vividly recall, on more than one occasion, commenting that Health Canada’s Health Protection Branch should be re-named the Industry Protection Branch, because it seemed more focused on protecting the chemical industry than protecting public health. Specifically, in an Oct. 17 article, he reported that the Pesticide Management Regulatory Agency “collaborated with an agrochemical giant to undermine research by a prominent Canadian scientist to stave off an impending ban of a class of pesticides harmful to human brains and sperm and deadly to bees, insects and birds.”

Clearly, it is still the case that . In his resignation letter, he wrote: “Should industry representatives — who have a clear and undeniable financial conflict of interest — be allowed to serve on the Pest Management Advisory Council? Absolutely not… . I worry that the Scientific Advisory Committee — and my role as a co-chair — provides a false sense of security that the PMRA is protecting Canadians from toxic pesticides. Based on my experience over the past year, I cannot provide that assurance.

 

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