Quebec should toughen pesticide regulations, doctors urge
The call from the Quebec College of Family Physicians, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and the environmental group Équiterre Tuesday comes as Quebec is reviewing the province’s pesticide-management code.
Last year, Ontario’s association of family doctors urged people to reduce their exposure to pesticides “whenever possible” in the wake of a review of 142 studies that showed links between certain pesticides and neurodevelopmental, respiratory and reproductive problems in children.
One of the authors of that study, Dr. Margaret Sanborn, was in Montreal Tuesday discussing her findings with doctors and scientists here. It was the second review of literature about the effects of pesticides on human health undertaken by the Ontario family doctors’ group.
The highest risks were to fetuses exposed to pesticides during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and to children exposed during the first year of life, Sanborn said.
Among other things, the study, published in 2012, found:
An association between pesticide exposure, especially during pregnancy, and asthma. In adults, occupational exposure to pesticides was associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Problems such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and reduced overall IQ were more common in older children who had higher levels of pesticide exposure during their mother’s pregnancy.
In utero exposure to pesticides was associated with lower birth weights.
Quebec is currently reviewing its pesticide-management code to toughen the rules on their use in urban areas, said Sophie Roy of Quebec’s environment department. She said the government has met with various groups, including those representing the ornamental horticulture industry, environment groups and the health and agriculture ministries. The government hopes to have the new code in place by the end of the year, Roy said.
First adopted in 2003, Quebec’s regulation bans 20 ingredients classified as carcinogens for use as lawn pesticides and restricts the use of pesticides in and around schools and daycares. It was the toughest pesticide regulation in North America when it was adopted.
In 2011, the David Suzuki Foundation and Équiterre compared pesticide regulations in six Canadian provinces and concluded Quebec was lagging behind such provinces as Ontario and Nova Scotia because it had not updated its regulation since its adoption in 2003. Some ingredients banned in Ontario, for example, are permitted in Quebec, Équiterre said.
via Quebec should toughen pesticide regulations, doctors urge.
NORAHG RESPONSE
Both Margaret Sanborn and Ontario College of Family Physicians ( OCFP ) and their Anti-Pesticide Literature Review has been DISCREDITED, DEBUNKED, and REFUTED by Health Canada and by The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. Sanborn and OCFP are RIDICULOUSLY IMPLYING that its NON-EXPERT ASSESSMENT is somehow being withheld from Health Canada and EVERY other regulatory agency in the world. INDISPUTABLE and CONCLUSIVE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH shows that, as reported through Health Canada’s VAST TOXICOLOGY DATABASE, NO HARM WILL OCCUR when pest control products are used according to label directions. The RISK ASSESSMENT of pest control products indicates that they are PRACTICALLY-NON-TOXIC. There is NOT ONE KNOWN CANCER DEATH from the proper use of pest control products used in the Urban Landscape. There are THOUSANDS OF KNOWN DEATHS per year from KNOWN CANCER-CAUSING SUBSTANCES such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, excess body weight, alcohol consumption, and over-exposure to the sun. Pest control products are SCIENTIFICALLY SAFE, CAUSE NO HARM, and DO NOT CAUSE CANCER.
Sanborn and OCFP ALLEGE having A MERE 140 UNDISCLOSED, NON-EXISTENT AND UNVERIFIABLE SECRET EVIDENCE about the safety of pest control products. How could this Anti-Pesticide Organization obtain studies that have somehow been withheld from the
entire world ? Moreover, pest control products like 2,4-D Herbicide have been the subject of over 40,000 STUDIES. Even, Canadian Cancer Society’s own web-sites STATE REPEATEDLY that scientific research does NOT provide a conclusive link between pest control products and cancer.
Sanborn and OCFP was NOT even in « The Information Loop » on issues regarding pest control products, and did not avail itself to the EXTENSIVE TOXICOLOGY DATABASE that is available from Health Canada. Sanborn and OCFP never even bothered to request to look at the TOXICOLOGY DATBASE through a process that Health Canada refers to as The Reading Room.
In return for CONCOCTING the Anti-Pesticide Literature Review, Sanborn and her OCFP buddies received SUBSTANTIAL PAY-OFFS from LAIDLAW FOUNDATION, an organization that FINANCIALLY SUPPORTS other SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES against pest control products. Sanborn’s speaking engagements are NOT as a scientist, but as AN ILLEGAL PAID-FOR-PROFIT LOBBYIST. The Anti-Pesticide Literature Review has absolutely NO CREDIBILITY since none of its PAID-FOR-PROFIT authors and reviewers, like Sanborn, had ANY recognized expertise, training or background in matters concerning pest control products. Moreover, among the authors and reviewers of the Anti-Pesticide Literature Review there are ● doctors who WERE FOUND GUILTY OF PROFESSIONAL MIS-CONDUCT OVER SEXUAL ACTIVITIES ( i.e. raping patients ) ● doctors whose LICENSE WAS SUSPENDED ● doctors who DENY HAVING REVIEWED THE DOCUMENT.
There is a GROWING BODY OF EVIDENCE that the authors and reviewers of the BOGUS Anti-Pesticide Literature Review were not only SCIENTIFICALLY IGNORANT, LAZY and OBTUSE, but also UNETHICAL, UNPROFESSIONAL, and even CRIMINAL.
WILLIAM H. GATHERCOLE AND NORAH G
NORAHG has archived more information on The Pesticide Truths Web-Site …
ONTARIO COLLEGE OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS – DISCREDITED, RADICAL, AND SCIENTIFICALLY IGNORANT MAD MEN PRETENDING TO BE SCIENTISTS WHO ARE LAZY & STUPID ( Web-Page )
http://wp.me/P1jq40-37C
CANADIAN CANCER SOCIETY – NO DIRECT PROOF PESTICIDES CAUSE CANCER ( Web-Page )
http://wp.me/P1jq40-4qC
THE PESTICIDE TRUTHS WEB-SITE
https://pesticidetruths.com/
PESTICIDE BANS ARE A FARCE ( Report )
http://wp.me/p1jq40-4mS
REAL TRENDS AGAINST PESTICIDE BANS ( Web-Page )
http://wp.me/P1jq40-1JO
CARNAGE CAUSED BY CATASTROPHIC ANTI-PESTICIDE PROHIBITION – MAIN WEB-PAGE
http://wp.me/P1jq40-5On
GOLF DESTRUCTION – GOLF IS NEXT ( Web-Page )
http://wp.me/P1jq40-4FC
WHITE PAPER – THE MYTHS ABOUT BANNING PESTICIDES ( Part 2 ) – LEADING SCIENTIFIC HEALTH AND POLICY EXPERTS
http://wp.me/p1jq40-5DD
COMPLAINT CHANNELS – COMPLAIN ABOUT THE ANTI-PESTICIDE LUNATICS ( Web-Page )
http://wp.me/P1jq40-1PE
THE COMPLETE LIBRARY OF REPORTS & REFERENCES ( Web-Page )
http://wp.me/P1jq40-2rr
PESTICIDE TRUTHS REPORTS ( Web-Page )
http://wp.me/P1jq40-53G