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Monday, April 20, 2009
New Democrats call for cosmetic pesticide ban: does it violate NAFTA and good science?
New Democrat MPs Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre) and Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster) will be holding a press conference today to comment on their party’s agenda for a national cosmetic pesticide ban.
Martin will be introducing a Private Members’ Bill in the House of Commons tomorrow calling on the Government of Canada to remove “cosmetic, non-essential” pesticides from the market.
As well, by means of a motion by Julian, the Committee on International Trade has recently recommended that the Government of Canada oppose Dow Agroscience and defend the Quebec provincial government’s decision to ban what it considers non-essential pesticide use. Dow is suing the federal government based on provisions in NAFTA that protect businesses from regulatory takings.
Are pesticides really a problem? Western Standard science columnist John Luik doesn't think so. He wrote:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, for example, found that only about 2.4 per cent of domestic foods exceeded acceptable pesticide levels.
Importantly, we consume far more natural chemicals that are known to cause cancer in animals than we do synthetic pesticides.
You can read more from Luik on this subject here.
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by Western Standard on April 20, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
Re New Democrats call for cosmetic pesticide ban, posted by Matthew Johnston and Western Standard on April 20, 2009. Mr. Johnson cites Western Standard science columnist John Luik who is of the opinion that pesticides are not a problem. Mr. Luik confuses apples and oranges. Cosmetic pesticide bans are essential to protect young children from unnecessary toxic exposures in a crowded urban environment, whereas pesticide residues are likely to be inhaled and go directly to the brain, bypassing the liver which is the cleansing organ. In contrast, pesticide residues in food are ingested via mouth and are cleansed by the liver. Pesticide use in agriculture has been excluded from Ontario's Bill 64 which will come into force on Earth Day. The alleged danger of human consumption of so-called "natural" pesticides is dismissed by credible science as a red herring.
Posted by: K. Jean Cottam, PhD | 2009-04-21 10:45:39 AM
Pesticides aren't a problem because we consume them---they are a problem because the ecosystem consumes them.
Posted by: themusicgod1 | 2009-04-26 11:03:01 PM
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