Bayer drops legal action against Friends of the Earth re: Concealed pesticide da

[Guest guest]

> JustSayNo

> Thu, 08 Jul 2004 02:48:36 -0000

> [sSRI-Research] Bayer drops legal action

> against Friends of the Earth re: Concealed pesticide

> da

>

> ALLIANCE FOR HUMAN RESEARCH PROTECTION (AHRP)

> Promoting openness and full disclosure

> http://www.ahrp.org <http://www.ahrp.org>

>

>

> FYI

>

> The Guardian reports that Bayer, the giant pesticide

> / pharmaceutical

> company has backed off from its bullying tactics in

> its effort to

> prevent Friends of the Earth from informing the

> public how to gain

> access to concealed pesticide safety data: " For

> eight months, Bayer

> has been trying to muzzle Friends of the Earth from

> publicising on

> its website how members of the public can

> legitimately obtain copies

> of scientific studies about the safety of

> pesticides. "

>

> " The information at the centre of the row is of

> interest to people

> exposed to pesticides through work, living near

> sprayed fields, legal

> representatives and academics researching the

> environmental and

> health impacts of pesticide use. "

>

> Bayer went to court last October seeking an

> injunction gagging the

> Friends of the Earth members, warning it " would sue

> FoE for

> damages. " But Friends of the Earth successfully

> challenged Bayer's

> injunction: " Bayer has now signed up to a settlement

> promising never

> to sue Friends of the Earth again for doing these

> things, and in

> particular not to sue Friends of the Earth for

> telling members of the

> public how to access this type of data or for

> requesting this type of

> data from regulators. "

>

> The Scientist reports that European health ministers

> meeting in

> Budapest under the aegis of World Health

> Organization (WHO) moved to

> take action against synthetic chemicals that affect

> child development

> higher on the global health agenda.

> <http://www.euro.who.int/budapest2004>

>

> They did so because of increased public concern and

> concern by

> scientists who raised questions about the impact of

> chemical

> pollutants on children's

> health: " children are very heavily exposed to an

> enormous number of

> synthetic chemicals that have been invented in the

> last 30 to 50

> years, that didn't even exist before, that are

> widespread in the

> environment, and present in children's bodies and

> mother's milk. "

>

> But US Environmental Protection Agency caved under

> the lobbying

> efforts of pharmaceutical / pesticide industry led

> by Bayer (under

> its CropScience identity), and changed the US policy

> banning human

> pesticide experiments which have been outlawed under

> the 1947

> Nuremberg Code. Bayer and the other chemical

> industry giants seek to

> reduce EPA mandated safety standards for pesticide

> levels that have

> been established through animal tests. Industry's

> unethical human

> experiments, briefly exposing a few healthy adult

> subjects to

> pesticides do not provide needed safety information

> for the

> protection of young children—who most vulnerable to

> neurological

> hazards from pesticides.

>

>

> Contact: Vera Hassner Sharav

> Tel: 212-595-8974

> e-mail: veracare

>

>

>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1250230,00.html

>

> The Guardian

> FoE joy as Bayer drops legal action

> June 30, 2004,

>

> Environmental campaigners have won a legal battle

> against a

> multinational company on the right to publicise the

> potential hazards

> of pesticides. Bayer has been forced to drop a court

> action against

> Friends of the Earth, in what FoE called a

> " humiliating climbdown " .

> FoE believes it is an important victory in its

> campaign for greater

> openness surrounding pesticides.

>

> FoE campaigners had obtained safety studies

> submitted by Bayer to the

> Swedish inspectorate responsible for regulating

> pesticides. The

> documents were released by the Swedish government

> under its " freedom

> of information " laws. Bayer demanded that FoE

> promise not to tell the

> public it had obtained these studies, nor how to

> obtain further such

> studies. FoE refused.

>

> Bayer went to the high court last October to get an

> injunction

> gagging the FoE campaigners. The company, which has

> a global turnover

> of £20bn, warned it would sue FoE for damages. FoE

> campaigners

> challenged the injunction and this week Bayer

> withdrew the injunction

> and promised to take no further legal moves against

> FoE. A Bayer

> spokesman said the company wanted to protect data

> which " would be

> valuable to competitors " . (by Rob Evans)

>

> Friends of the Earth, Press Release

>

> GM PESTICIDE " SECRETS " TO GO PUBLIC AS BAYER DROPS

> COURT CASE

> Bayer CropScience, the multi-national agro-chemical

> and biotech

> corporation, has dropped its court action against

> Friends of the

> Earth. It had tried to prevent the environmental

> group from telling

> the public how to access safety data on pesticides -

> including a

> flagship weedkiller for use on GM herbicide tolerant

> crops in the UK,

> Glufosinate Ammonium.

>

> Bayer started legal action when Friends of the Earth

> told them it had

> legally obtained copies of safety data from the

> Swedish pesticide

> regulator KEMI and said it was going to tell the

> public how they

> could obtain the information in the same way. The

> information at the

> centre of the row is of interest to people exposed

> to pesticides

> through work, living near sprayed fields, legal

> representatives and

> academics researching the environmental and health

> impacts of

> pesticide use.

>

> The group told Bayer it intended to use its website

> to tell people

> how to get data from regulators around the world,

> including Sweden,

> Denmark, Ireland and the USA. Bayer had previously

> taken the UK

> government to court to stop them releasing the same

> information to

> FOE [1].

>

> Last October Bayer applied to the High Court for an

> injunction to

> stop Friends of the Earth: telling people that KEMI

> or any other

> regulator held Bayer's pesticide data; telling

> people that Friends of

> the Earth had obtained copies of Bayer's pesticide

> data from foreign

> regulators; from making any more requests to KEMI or

> to any other

> foreign regulator for access to Bayer's data.

>

> Bayer has now signed up to a settlement promising

> never to sue

> Friends of the Earth again for doing these things,

> and in particular

> not to sue Friends of the Earth for telling members

> of the public how

> to access this type of data or for requesting this

> type of data from

> regulators. [2]. A web page [3] published today by

> Friends of the

> Earth gives advice to the public on how to make

> requests to

> international regulators to get copies of

> information submitted by

> the companies as part of approval applications. The

> web page includes

> a warning that the data be subject to copyright

> protection and

> intellectual property rights [4].

>

> Commenting Tony Juniper Director of Friends of the

> Earth said: " This

> is a humiliating climb-down by a biotech bully.

> Bayer tried to use

> their massive financial muscle to prevent members of

> the public

> having access to important health and environmental

> data about

> substances that are sprayed on our food crops every

> day. Bayer have

> gone to great lengths and expense to keep their data

> out of the

> public domain but in the end were forced to cave in

> because our case

> was right. " " Friends of the Earth's victory is a

> major step towards

> lifting the veil of corporate secrecy that surrounds

> pesticide

> approvals. It is an important signal to big business

> that we will not

> be silenced. It's high time the corporations making

> pesticides and

> chemicals moved into the 21st century and supported

> full access to

> information instead of resorting to bully boy

> tactics in the courts " .

>

> Bayer market many pesticides world wide which pose a

> threat to the

> environment and health [5]. Last month, the French

> government banned

> Bayer's pesticide Gaucho because of the threat it

> poses to honey bees

> [5] until the product undergoes a further EU safety

> review in 2006.

> Other Bayer pesticides include aldicarb, one of the

> most toxic

> chemicals still approved - Bayer successfully

> lobbied to prevent a EU

> wide ban last year and continues to keep the product

> on the market

> beyond 2007. The Bayer weed killer IPU is frequently

> detected in

> rivers during the winter months and has to be

> filtered out from water

> going into public at high cost to the water

> companies to comply with

> EU drinking water limits.

>

> Friends of the Earth has been campaigning for full

> access to

> information for many years. It argues that companies

> that market

> pesticides and other potentially toxic chemicals

> must recognise the

> public has a right to know the potential impact of

> being exposed to

> them through breathing eating and drinking. Public

> access is also

> important because it means that independent

> scientists can monitor

> the effectiveness of the regulatory process in

> protecting people and

> the environment.

>

> Notes to Editors

>

> 1. In 2000 Friends of the Earth asked the Pesticides

> Safety

> Directorate for copies of data supporting Bayer's

> application to use

> their weed killer glufosinate ammonium on GM crops

> in the government

> sponsored farm scale evaluations. PSD eventually

> agreed to release

> the documents at which point Bayer sought a judicial

> review to

> prevent them releasing the information. After a two

> day hearing in

> May 2003, Bayer agreed to an out of court settlement

> which allowed

> Friends of the Earth to have " read-only " access to

> the data. In the

> meantime, Friends of the Earth established that

> copies of some of the

> data being denied them in the UK was available from

> other pesticide

> regulators around the world. Copies of some

> documents were obtained

> from the Swedish regulator KEMI and from the USA's

> EPA and also from

> the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

>

>

2.<http://intranet.foe.co.uk:880/campaigns/real_food/news/2004/june/ba

> yer/>

>

> 3. Please note that the owner of the data retains

> proprietary rights

> in respect of information contained in documents

> obtained from

> regulatory authorities which also may be subject to

> copyright

> protection and other intellectual property rights

> (including the

> protection of confidential information). Making

> further copies,

> distributing or publishing the documents whether for

> commercial

> purposes or otherwise, or permitting or assisting

> any third party to

> do so, outside the terms of relevant national

> legislation (being the

> national legislation of the country in which the

> copy documents have

> been obtained or received) may give rise to criminal

> or civil

> liability.

>

> 4. Media Briefing on pesticides: Link

>

> 5 Bayer acts to keep Temik available to vegetable

> growers. Grower.

> December 11 2003 P.6.

> Additional information - Friends of the Earth's

> proposals for access

> to information on pesticides available on request.

>

>

> The Scientist, July 1st 2004

> Chemicals in kids new WHO foe

>

> " Ministers call for 'decisive action,' while the

> chemical industry

> says WHO threatens business " | By Robert Walgate

> <Walgate

>

>

> BUDAPEST—At a meeting of European health ministers

> <http://www.euro.who.int/budapest2004> here last

> week, the World

> Health Organization (WHO) moved action against

> synthetic chemicals

> that affect child development higher on the global

> health agenda.

>

> Scientists said action was overdue, with tens of

> thousands of novel

> chemicals of unknown effect circulating in our

> bodies, but chemical

> industry representatives told The Scientist the new

> stance could

> delay chemical research and development by 15 years,

> and raise issues

> of international competition and equity.

>

> Philip Landrigan

> <http://www.cdc.gov/eis/about/landrigan.htm> of

> Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY, said in a

> scientific meeting at

> the Budapest summit that " children are very heavily

> exposed to an

> enormous number of synthetic chemicals that have

> been invented in the

> last 30 to 50 years, that didn't even exist before,

> that are

> widespread in the environment, and present in

> children's bodies and

> mother's milk. "

>

> While the toxic effects of a few, like lead and

> methyl mercury, are

> now known, the impact of most remains unknown,

> Landrigan said. A

> massive new research effort will be needed to

> identify the safety or

> dangers of the others, he argued.

>

> At the meeting, under the aegis of the WHO European

> region

> <http://www.euro.who.int/> , the ministers of health

> and environment

> of 52 countries from Ireland to Uzbekistan issued a

> declaration

> calling strongly for more research on these

> substances.

>

> Ministers said: " Decisive action should be taken

> without undue delay

> to overcome the gaps in knowledge about the effects

> of chemicals on

> human health and to achieve sustainable development

> in the chemical

> industry. "

>

> Ministers cautiously supported WHO in a widespread

> and stronger use

> of the " precautionary principle, " which is employed

> by the European

> Union and others to suspend production of chemicals

> in which initial

> evidence shows risk.

>

> Some scientists at the Budapest meeting, like

> Philippe Grandjean

>

<http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/faculty/PhilippeGrandjean.html>

> of the

> Institute of Public Health, University of Southern

> Denmark, likened

> the chemical industry to the tobacco industry.

>

> But Marc Danzon, Regional Director of WHO Euro told

> The Scientist: " I

> think the chemical industry ignored health for many

> years and has

> been a bit stressed by what's happening with the

> tobacco industry.

> But we don't consider the chemical or food industry

> to be the same as

> the tobacco industry. Tobacco gives nothing positive

> to health. You

> can't say that for the chemical industry. "

>

> Danzon wants constructive dialogue but said, " WHO

> will maintain our

> position as the advocates for health… Health cannot

> be negotiated.

> The dangers should be known, and we cannot be weak

> on that… If they

> want to locate themselves [like the tobacco

> industry], it's up to

> them. But we are not at all in the same

> configuration. "

>

> Colin Humphris, executive director for research at

> the European

> Chemical Industries Council <http://www.cefic.be/> ,

> told The

> Scientist: " Industry experience is that at the

> technical level we get

> cooperation, " with government and regulatory bodies

> such as those of

> the European Union. " This is a different sort of

> political debate, "

> he said.

>

> Humphris acknowledged that " there are gaps in the

> data sheets on some

> chemicals and there are issues over quality of data

> for others—but

> the industry has a voluntary program to fill those

> gaps for the 1000

> top-tonnage chemicals. That's a big fraction of

> chemical production, "

> he said.

>

> The combination of public concern and the new WHO

> position means " the

> chemical industry is headed to be like the

> pharmaceutical industry, "

> Humphris said. " They go through all the various

> phases of trials,

> which take typically 15 years to get approval. So

> the first thing

> you'll see is that some of our technological

> development will become

> long term. "

>

> But drugs and chemicals have some specific

> differences, Humphris

> said. " Largely pharmaceuticals are being given in

> known doses to a

> known and defined population. And even so, unknown

> risks arise later,

> like breast cancer and HRT. The issue for the

> chemical industry is we

> don't have control over exposure. What a child might

> be exposed to is

> very difficult for our industry to handle. "

> " This has a way to run… There are a lot of

> potentially conflicting

> issues here, " Humphris said.

>

> Links for this article

> Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and

> Health: The Future

> for Our Children, Hungary, June 23–25

> http://www.euro.who.int/budapest2004

>

> Philip Landrigan

> http://www.cdc.gov/eis/about/landrigan.htm

>

> World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe

>

> http://www.euro.who.int/

>

> Philippe Grandjean

>

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/faculty/PhilippeGrandjean.html

>

>

> European Chemical Industry Council

> http://www.cefic.be/

>

>