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EARTH ACTION
Breadalbane RR#2 PEI C0A 1E0 Tel: 902-621-0719 Email: slabchuk@isn.net
MEDIA RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Earth Action petitions federal government for enforcement of
Pest Control Products Act
July 14, 2003
(Charlottetown) Earth Action has petitioned the federal government to enforce the Pest Control Products Act (PCP Act) to stop illegal advertising by the pesticide industry. The PEI environmental activist organization also wants the PCP Act amended so that government officials are prohibited from making false and misleading claims about pesticide safety.
Under Section 22 of the Auditor General Act, citizens and organizations can bring their concerns about environmental issues to the attention of federal ministers by submitting a petition to the Auditor General of Canada. Federal ministers who receive petitions are compelled to provide a response and must do so within 120 days of receiving the petition.The federal Commissioner of Environment and Sustainable Development oversees environmental petitions on behalf of the Auditor General of Canada.
“We submitted numerous examples of advertising for both agricultural and lawn care pesticides that we believe contravenes the PCP Act,” says Earth Action pesticide campaigner Sharon Labchuk.
The PCP Act prohibits advertising that is false or misleading, or makes environmental claims using words such as ‘safe’ or ‘safer’, and ‘environmentally friendly’. Advertising must not contain words stating or implying that a pesticide product is approved, accepted or recommended by the Government of Canada.
Labchuk says Bayer places full-page ads for the potato insecticide Admire in Island Farmer, a PEI agriculture newspaper. “Admire was first registered for use in Canada in 1995,” says Labchuk. “It is now used on virtually every potato field in PEI thanks to relentless promotion by Bayer. Bayer claims this insecticide is ‘environmentally sound’, ‘proven safe’, ‘approved’ by the federal government, and ‘not harmful to people or the environment’. All of this language is illegal under the PCP Act. In fact, Bayer’s own label for Admire states it is highly toxic to bees, birds and aquatic invertebrates, and that it ‘demonstrates the properties and characteristics associated with chemicals detected in groundwater.’”
Earth Action says web sites for lawn care companies like the Weedman and Bobby Lawn Care are laced with false and misleading statements prohibited under the PCP Act. “The Weedman advertises its products as biodegradable and safe for the environment, the user, the bystander and pets,” says Labchuk.
“ Bobby Lawncare says it uses products ‘approved and deemed safe by the government for environment and people’. The owner of Atlantic Graduate Lawn Care wrote in the Guardian that ‘there is no scientific research to support or link pesticides to being carcinogenic’.
Earth Action also wants the PCP Act amended so that government officials cannot claim pesticide products are safe.
“We asked in our petition whether government officials who claim pesticides are safe are contravening the Act. If they are not, we want the Act amended to make it illegal for them to claim pesticides are safe, just as it is illegal for the pesticide industry to make these claims,” says Labchuk.
She says Minister of Agriculture Mitch Murphy told media earlier this year (Guardian April 27, 2003) that the pesticide 1,3-dichloropropene found in some Alberton drinking water wells was safe. “This pesticide is listed by the State of California as a known ground water contaminant and a known carcinogen, and was later banned by the Province,” says Labchuk.
“Don Reeves, manager of the PEI Pesticide Regulatory Program told media (Guardian May 27, 2000) that he hasn’t seen any evidence that shows pesticides used on PEI pose any health hazard to Islanders.”
“We have a serious problem on PEI with government officials continually supporting the pesticide industry and ignoring public health. In effect, these officials are mouthpieces for the pesticide industry and this is a loophole in the PCP Act. What’s the point in prohibiting the pesticide industry from claiming pesticides are safe when government officials, the regulators and enforcers of pesticide laws, do it for them?”
-30-
Attachments: Petition to Auditor General of Canada is included as an electronic attachment
Contact:
Sharon Labchuk
902-621-0719
For information on the environmental petitions process:
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/cesd_cedd.nsf/html/menu7_e.html
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C.B. COMPANY FACES POLLUTION CHARGES
The provincial Environment Department wants to charge a Cape Breton company for violating the Environment Act.
FULL STORY
http://novascotia.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=ns_envirovacuum20030801
DEAD WHALES PUZZLE SCIENTISTS
Scientists are trying to determine what's killing whales on Georges Bank off the south coast of Nova Scotia.
FULL STORY
http://novascotia.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=ns_deadwhales20030731
© Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
READ BETWEEN THE LINES OF THOSE 28 MISSING PAGES
Robert Scheer, AlterNet
Even censored, 9/11 report shows the focus was on the wrong nation.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16513
COD IS DEAD
Elizabeth Grossman, Grist Magazine
Richard Ellis's 'The Empty Ocean' delves into the world of marine destruction.
* In EnviroHealth: http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/
From paul.falvo@justice.gc.ca Fri Aug 1 20:38:03 2003
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2003 09:17:07 -0600
From: "Falvo, Paul" <paul.falvo@justice.gc.ca>
To: PF <pfalvo@chebucto.ns.ca>
Subject: sustu
FBI INTERROGATION FOR READING ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
By Marc Schultz, Creative Loafing
Careful what you read! A "suspicious," bearded man reading an article from a free, independent alt weekly paper is evidently reason enough for two FBI agents to conduct an interview.
http://www.utne.com/webwatch/2003_89/news/10721-1.html
* Mass arrests disrupt legal protests *
Monday's demonstrations in Montreal were called with hopes of disrupting
World Trade Organization meetings. However, it quickly became obvious that
protesters weren't going to impede anything. Hundreds of well-armed riot
cops supervised a barricaded perimeter that blocked protesters from getting
within 100 metres of the hotel where the WTO delegates were meeting. >by
Yves Engler > http://rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?x=23949
* Reports of demise greatly exaggerated *
Only six weeks after Canadian Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew pronounced, ^ÓI
draw great satisfaction out of the fact that the phenomenon of
anti-globalization has completely disappeared,^Ô Montreal^Òs Queen Elizabeth
Hotel cancelled its booking for next week^Òs World Trade Organization
meetings, fearful that expected large protests would be disruptive. That
disruption is in the interest of most Canadians. >by Yves Engler >
http://rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?x=23862
* Pettigrew skirts NGO concerns *
In Montreal earlier this week, civil society leaders met with International
Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew and WTO Director General Supachai
Panitchpakdi. The National Union's Larry Brown says many voiced ^Óforceful
and unrelenting criticisms^Ô of trade liberalization. But he says Pettigrew
was dismissive throughout, leaving many participants ^Óflabbergasted at his
refusal to even acknowledge our concerns.^Ô >National Union of Pubilc and
General Employees > http://www.rabble.ca/in_cahoots.shtml
* Peoples' guide to WTO and FTAA *
This week's WTO meeting in Montreal is but a fuelling stop on the road to
the WTO's Fifth Ministerial in September. And the stakes in Cancun will be
huge: agreements there could multiply the powers of transnational
corporations at the expense of public services everywhere. Increasingly,
understanding and opposing the WTO drive may be fruitless without also
grasping how it interlocks with the budding Free Trade Agreement of the
Americas (FTAA). Here's a people's guide to both deals. >Polaris Institute /
Council of Canadians > http://www.rabble.ca/in_cahoots.shtml
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