Renovation pros will tell you: if your roof is leaking, it’s better to fix it than to hastily build another one over it.
Health Canada should note this in the pesticide regulatory file.
Instead of cleaning up its advisory committee plagued by conflicts of interest, the federal ministry decided last year to create another one on the side.
Result: the co-chair of the new committee, Dr. Bruce Lanphear, has just slammed the door saying that he has no confidence in Health Canada’s ability to ensure the safety of Canadians with regard to pesticides.1.
And the old committee is plagued by the same credibility problems as before.
This is nothing to reassure Canadians. A housekeeping is needed within the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), the division of Health Canada that deals with pesticides.
The creation of the independent scientific committee whose Dr Lanphear’s resignation stems from a scandal that has significantly affected PMRA’s credibility.
In 2021, the Agency proposed to raise the limit on glyphosate residues that may be present in food. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the world, and its carcinogenic effects are the subject of significant scientific debate.
The question was therefore delicate… and was managed in a catastrophic way by Health Canada. The federal department was never able to clearly explain the nature of the proposed changes or the reasons for them. At the time, The Press ended up learning that it was Bayer, the multinational that markets glyphosate, which had asked to raise the thresholds2.
Under political pressure, the Trudeau government then canceled the increase and announced several changes within the PMRA. The Pesticides Act has been revised. The agency’s budget has been increased. We have announced that we want to favor independent data over those provided by pesticide manufacturers.
The government also created the new independent scientific committee at this time.
These are steps in the right direction that we then welcomed3.
What we see today, however, is that while the new committee of experts provides independent advice to the Department, the committee that was already in place continues to whisper directly in the ear of the Minister of Health.
However, in the latter case, the advice given is not always disinterested.
This committee includes recognized experts and public health specialists, as well as industry representatives. The CEO of CropLife Canada, the association of pesticide manufacturers and sellers, sits there in particular.
The conflict of interest is as blatant as it is gross. And it is likely to undermine the confidence of Canadians.
The proof: on June 20, the PMRA decided to once again authorize increases in pesticide residues in food (except for glyphosate). And there are still questions about whether this is driven by science or industry pressures.
Health Canada defends its advisory committee by saying that it brings together “people whose interests and concerns are affected” by pesticide regulations. However, the only interest that Health Canada should defend on these issues is the health of Canadians.
That doesn’t mean not talking to manufacturers. But for them to have the minister’s ear in a standing committee is clearly going too far.
This is all the more true since an exercise like setting the limits of pesticides allowed in food is not supposed to be a balancing act between various interests, but a pure scientific question.
It is a question of evaluating objectively, with the best data available, which threshold is safe for the population.
All we are asking of Health Canada is to rely on independent science, within the framework of a transparent process, to make the best decisions with regard to the health of Canadians.
In the case of the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, it should start with a good independent advisory committee rather than two vying for government influence.