| Many of you are likely familiar with the chemical giant, Monsanto, and the damning documents which have come to light thanks to a U.S. court case. The documents exposed as part of the litigation — commonly known as the “Monsanto papers” — show that the chemical company changed scientific research to downplay the cancer risks of its glyphosate pesticides.
What you might not know is that the Monsanto papers hit closer to home than you’d expect.
In 2017, Canadian regulators appear to have relied on many of these same studies when it re-approved the widespread use of glyphosate in Canada for another 15 years.
That’s why we’ve called on the Minister of Health to strike an independent review panel to re-consider the decision. As Ecojustice’s healthy communities program director Elaine MacDonald said in a recent CBC interview: “We need to know when science is independent, and when science has been potentially influenced by vested interests, such as industry. In this case, these were put forward as independent scientific papers, and what the Monsanto Papers have revealed is that this isn’t the case.”
Whenever there is the possibility that the use of a certain pesticide may endanger human health or environment, it’s the government’s responsibility to guide decision-making using the best available scientific research.
When government fails to live up to this duty, it falls to people and organizations like Ecojustice to hold them to account.
In our latest blog, my colleagues Randy Christensen and Elaine MacDonald explain what we’re doing to protect Canadians from glyphosate and how we’re working to ensure risky pesticides are required to undergo more rigorous reviews. |