Jan 26, 2016
By Michael Kramer
A new environmental audit has some shocking findings.
The annual report from the federal environment commissioner’s office was tabled today in Parliament – and says it takes years for the federal Pest Management Agency to remove risky pesticides from the marketplace.
The report also says routine re-evaluations are falling far behind – and conditionally registered products which have not been properly vetted – have in some cases been in use for more than a decade.
Last week, the Liberal government moved to stop the practice of conditionally registering pesticides – but the commissioner’s report indicates that is just one area of concern.
About 7,000 pesticides are available to Canadian consumers – containing some 600 active ingredients.
Every 15 years all products are supposed to be re-evaluated.
And commissioner Julie Gelfand says 95 per cent of re-evaluations result in additional precautions to protect health or the environment.
But only 14 products are re-checked each year.
That’s far below the number that should be re-evaluated – with more pesticides up for yearly re-evaluation.
The audit also discovered that even products that are found to be unacceptably risky – remain in circulation for years.
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