Unlike her colleague who has just left, the co-chair of Health Canada’s scientific committee on pesticides – Quebecer Valérie Langlois – intends to continue her mandate in the hope of improving things.
“I see a little positive, so I stay,” explained in an interview with The Press Professor at the National Institute for Scientific Research of Quebec.
“False sense of security”, “obsolete regulatory system”, “obstructed transparency”: the Dr Bruce Lanphear recently slammed the door of Health Canada’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Pesticide Products with harsh criticism of its Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA). This agency oversees the approval and use of these chemicals in the country.
“Every time I meet them, I tell them: ‘Are you kidding me? ? Am I a puppet? Do you use us”? Me, I don’t want to do that, and every time [ils répondent] : “No, Valerie, Bruce, you are extremely important. PMRA is starting a transformation it has never seen and we need people who are independent and who are going to help us get there.” Because when it’s just the same mentality, you end up doing the same thing again. They keep telling me that, so I’m like, ‘OK, I’m going to trust you.’ »
” Never seen ”
Bruce Lanphear, Professor of Children’s Environmental Health at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, and Valérie Langlois were appointed to lead Health Canada’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Pest Control Products in June 2022. Their terms were for three years.
This committee of nine independent experts was created in the wake of a lively controversy that made headlines in 2021. The PMRA then proposed to raise the maximum pesticide residue limit for certain foods.
“I’m concerned that the Scientific Advisory Committee – and my role as co-chair – gives a false sense of security that the PMRA is protecting Canadians from toxic pesticides,” Lanphear wrote in his resignation letter.
Valérie Langlois, who also holds the Canada Research Chair in Ecotoxicogenomics and Endocrine Disruption, points out that she “respects” her colleague.
However, she welcomes the fact that her committee meetings are public. “This is unheard of at the PMRA,” she points out.
“When I started, and I’ve been in the business for a long time, we couldn’t even talk to them,” she says.
So far, four meetings have taken place and two reports have been released with dozens of recommendations.
“We’ll talk about it again in a year, and then I’ll tell you if it’s worth it. Really, this year was just figuring out how it works. It’s complicated, their business. And this year, for sure, we’re going to want shares. »
Pesticide industry has too much of a hold on Health Canada, says NDP
The resignation of a science adviser to the federal pesticide regulator is another example of too much industry influence over Health Canada, according to NDP Health Critic Don Davies. The latter recalled that in February, a member of the board of directors and the executive director of the Canadian regulatory body for drug prices had also resigned. They alleged that pressure from industry had blocked reforms aimed at reducing the cost of patented drugs.
The Canadian Press