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<h1 class="entry-title">New on ISN: EU Safety Institutions Caught Plotting an Industry “escape route” Around Looming Pesticide Ban</h1>
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<span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author">By </span><span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="http://www.bioscienceresource.org/author/admin/" title="View all posts by admin">admin</a></span>
<span class="meta-sep meta-sep-entry-date"> | </span>
<span class="meta-prep meta-prep-entry-date">Published: </span><span class="entry-date"><abbr class="published" title="2014-05-26T14:30:28+0000">May 26, 2014</abbr></span>
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<div class="entry-content"><p><em>Independent Science News</em> has just published “<a title="Link to ISN website: EU Safety Institutions Caught Plotting an Industry “escape route” Around Looming Pesticide Ban" href="http://www.independentsciencenews.org/news/eu-safety-institutions-caught-plotting-an-industry-escape-route-around-looming-pesticide-ban/"><strong>EU Safety Institutions Caught Plotting an Industry “escape route” Around Looming Pesticide Ban</strong></a>” by Jonathan Latham, PhD, Executive Director of the Bioscience Resource Project.</p><p><em>Synopsis: </em>Documents obtained by the nonprofit Pesticide
Action Network (PAN) of Europe reveal that the health commission of the
European Union (DG SANCO), which is responsible for protecting public
health, is attempting to develop a procedural “escape route” to help
companies evade an upcoming EU-wide ban on endocrine disrupting
pesticides. This ban arose from strong scientific concerns over
endocrine disrupting chemicals in food and the environment. As
discovered by PAN Europe, DG SANCO is working with the European Food
Safety Authority (EFSA) to construct a technical loophole that would
allow these chemicals to stay on the market. The discovery of a secret
plan is troubling for many reasons. It implies the leadership of the EU,
and even its specific safety institutions, would rather ignore
scientific knowledge, endanger the public, and disregard the democratic
decision-making process, than go against the wishes of the chemical
industry. The article quotes Science Director of The Bioscience Resource
Project, Allison Wilson, PhD, <em>“The public will be astounded and
appalled to find that the institutions tasked with protecting them are
secretly working against them. EFSA has shown itself to be untrustworthy
and should be disbanded. Deep rethinking appears necessary since it is
not only the EU that has failed to construct institutions capable of
safely regulating toxic substances. Perhaps we should question the
wisdom of economies dependent on synthetic chemicals and high risk
products.” </em></p><p><strong>Read the full article on <em>ISN</em>: <a title="Link to ISN website: EU Safety Institutions Caught Plotting an Industry “escape route” Around Looming Pesticide Ban" href="http://www.independentsciencenews.org/news/eu-safety-institutions-caught-plotting-an-industry-escape-route-around-looming-pesticide-ban/">EU Safety Institutions Caught Plotting an Industry “escape route” Around Looming Pesticide Ban</a>. </strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: #999999;">More on the systemic nature of regulatory failure in the EU and USA:</span></strong><span id="more-3833"></span></p><p id="gs_cit0" tabindex="0"><strong>Myers, John Peterson, <em>et al</em>. “<a title="PDF of The Case of Bisphenol A" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2661896/pdf/ehp-117-309.pdf">Why Public Health Agencies Cannot Depend on Good Laboratory Practices as a Criterion for Selecting Data: The Case of Bisphenol A</a>.” <i>Environmental Health Perspectives</i> 117.3 (2009): 309-315.</strong><br>
The estrogenic chemical BPA is used extensively in food and drink
packaging. Hundreds of peer-reviewed studies show harmful effects of BPA
at low doses. Yet the EPA and the European Food Safety Authority
disregard them all because they are not certified as GLP (Good
Laboratory Practice). Instead, they have declared BPA to be safe based
on two industry studies. These studies are GPA but they are dangerously
flawed. The authors demonstrate why “<em>public health decisions should
be based on studies using appropriate protocols and the most sensitive
assays. They should not be based on criteria that include or exclude
data depending on whether or not the studies use GLP. Simply meeting GLP
requirements is insufficient to guarantee scientific reliability and
validity</em>.”</p><p style="text-align: left;"><strong><a title="Link to Wendy Wagner's professional website and her other articles" href="https://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/wewagner/" target="_blank">Wagner, Wendy</a>, and <a title="Link to David Michaels' professional website and book and publication list." href="https://sphhs.gwu.edu/faculty/index.cfm?empName=%20David%20Michaels&employeeID=76" target="_blank">David Michaels</a>. “<a title="PDF of Wagner, Wendy, and David Michaels. (2004) Equal Treatment for Regulatory Science: Extending the Controls Governing the Quality of Public Research to Private Reseach." href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/8331752_Equal_treatment_for_regulatory_science_extending_the_controls_governing_the_quality_of_public_research_to_private_research/file/3deec525c2f5d0c924.pdf">Equal Treatment for Regulatory Science: Extending the Controls Governing the Quality of Public Research to Private Reseach</a>.” <em>Am. JL & Med.</em> 30 (2004): 119.<br>
</strong>“<em>Worrisome evidence of compromised private research is effectively ignored as the “sound science</em>”
reforms take aim primarily at publicly funded research.” This paper is
essential reading for anyone interested in scientific risk assessment;
the types of flaws found in industry data; how industry controls data
production and suppresses adverse results; unequal scrutiny of industry
vs. public sector data; the misuse of CBI (confidential business
information); and how to combat these pernicious and pervasive problems.
Eye-opening data and analysis.</p><p><strong>Snyder, Caroline. “<a title="PDF of Snyder, Caroline. "The dirty work of promoting “recycling” of America's sewage sludge." International journal of occupational and environmental health 11.4 (2005): 415-427." href="http://www.sludgefacts.org/IJOEH_1104_Snyder.pdf">The Dirty Work of Promoting “Recycling” of America’s Sewage Sludge</a>” <i>International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health</i> 11.4 (2005): 415-427.<br>
</strong>This powerful article documents how the EPA has joined with the
Sludge industry to promote the farmland application of toxic sewage
sludge. EPA and industry tactics include attacking and suppressing the
research of independent scientists; funding industry-friendly science;
and defending data known to be fraudulent. EPA uses tax-payer money to
promote the use of toxic sludge on farmland and cover up its harmful
effects. Rather than fund epidemiological or ecological studies into the
harmful effects of farmland application, EPA funds workshops to explore
whether illnesses reported by sludge victims are “psychosomatic”. Even
the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has caved in to industry
pressure, whitewashing known sludge hazards in its 2002 report <em>Biosolids Applied to the Land</em>. Snyder’s article shows that EPA and sludge industry PR follow the playbook of other “product defense” campaigns.</p><p><strong>Robinson, Claire, <em>et al</em>. “<a title="PDF of Robinson, Claire, et al. "Conflicts of interest at the European Food Safety Authority erode public confidence." Journal of epidemiology and community health 67.9 (2013): 717-720." href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/235895346_Conflicts_of_interest_at_the_European_Food_Safety_Authority_erode_public_confidence/file/504635282714170cf4.pdf">Conflicts of Interest at the European Food Safety Authority Erode Public Confidence</a>.” <em>Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health</em> 67.9 (2013): 717-720.<br>
</strong>This paper outlines EFSA regulators’ numerous conflicts with
the public interest and demands five key reforms. These are explained
and include an end to reliance on industry-funded research for risk
assessment and wider participation and greater transparency in the risk
assessment process.</p><p><strong>David L. Pelletier.”<a title="Abstract, Pelletier 2006" href="http://www.aseanbiotechnology.info/Abstract/21020405.pdf">FDA’s regulation of genetically engineered foods: Scientific, legal and political dimensions</a>” <em>Food Policy</em> 31 (2006) 570–591.<br>
</strong>Pelletier discusses how the FDA decided on its regulatory policy for GMOs, which remains in place today. “<em>This
paper reveals that the FDA responded to political pressure for a
permissive regulatory approach by exploiting gaps in scientific
knowledge, creatively interpreting existing food law and limiting public
involvement in the policy’s development</em>.” Pelletier documents the
unscientific basis of GMO regulation, revealing the contrast between
government and industry assurances that GMO regulation is science based
and stringent and that GMOs are “safe” and the actual situation, which
continues to be one of “<em>great uncertainty</em>“, due to the lack of a “<em>major public research effort</em>.”</p><p><strong>Meyer, Hartmut, and Angelika Hilbeck. “<a title="Meyer and Hilbeck 2013" href="http://www.enveurope.com/content/pdf/2190-4715-25-33.pdf" target="_blank">Rat Feeding Studies with Genetically Modified Maize – a Comparative Evaluation of Applied Methods and Risk Assessment Standards</a>” <em>Environmental Sciences Europe</em> 25.1 (2013): 1-11.<br>
</strong>In this important review of GMO risk assessment methods, Meyer
and Hilbeck documented bias in the way that EFSA regulators evaluated
the controversial rat feeding study research carried out by Seralini <em>et al</em>.
(2012). In addition, they identified inappropriate laboratory practices
that are commonplace in GMO studies. These practices compromise
research integrity, often by introducing an industry favorable bias. See
also: <a title="Links to BSR blog post on this article: Researchers Uncover Multiple Sources of Bias in GMO Risk Assessments " href="http://www.bioscienceresource.org/2014/02/researchers-uncover-multiple-sources-of-bias-in-gmo-risk-assessment/">Researchers Uncover Multiple Sources of Bias in GMO Risk Assessments</a>.</p></div></div></div></div></div><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; 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-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Allison Wilson, PhD</div><div>Science Director</div><div>The Bioscience Resource Project</div><div><br></div><div>phone: 1 (607) 319 0279</div><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div><a href="mailto:a.wilson@bioscienceresource.org">a.wilson@bioscienceresource.org</a></div><div><a href="http://www.independentsciencenews.org/">www.independentsciencenews.org</a><br>and<br><a href="http://www.bioscienceresource.org/">www.bioscienceresource.org</a></div></div><div><br></div><div>"Good with Science"</div></div></div></div></div></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span> </div><br></body></html>