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press release friends of the earth
london, 30 june 2004
gm pesticide “secrets” to go public as
bayer drops court case
Bayer CropScience, the multi-national
agro-chemical and biotech corporation, has
dropped its court action against Friends of
the Earth England, Wales and Northern
Ireland.
It had tried to prevent the environmental
group from telling the public how to access
safety data on pesticides – including a
weedkiller for use on GM herbicide-tolerant
crops in the UK, Glufosinate Ammonium.
Bayer started legal action when Friends of
the Earth said it had legally obtained copies
of safety data from the Swedish pesticide
regulator KEMI and said it was going to tell
the public how they could obtain the
information in the same way.
The information at the centre of the row
is of interest to people exposed to
pesticides through work, living near sprayed
fields, legal representatives and academics
researching the environmental and health
impacts of pesticide use.
Friends of the Earth in the UK told Bayer
it intended to use its website to tell people
how to get data from regulators around the
world, including Sweden, Denmark, Ireland and
the USA. Bayer had previously taken the UK
Government to court to stop them releasing
the same information to Friends of the Earth
[1].
Last October Bayer applied to the High
Court for an injunction to stop Friends of
the Earth in the UK:
• telling people that KEMI or any other
regulator held Bayer's pesticide data;
• telling people that Friends of the Earth
had obtained copies of Bayer's pesticide data
from foreign regulators;
• from making any more requests to KEMI or
to any other foreign regulator for access to
Bayer's data.
Bayer has now signed up to a settlement
promising never to sue Friends of the Earth
again for doing these things, and in
particular not to sue Friends of the Earth
for telling members of the public how to
access this type of data or for requesting
this type of data from regulators [2].
A web page [3] published today by Friends
of the Earth in the UK gives advice to the
public on how to make requests to
international regulators to get copies of
information submitted by companies as part of
approval applications. The web page includes
a warning that the data is subject to
copyright protection and intellectual
property rights [4].
Tony Juniper Director of Friends of the
Earth in the UK said:
“This is a humiliating climb-down by Bayer,
a biotech bully. Bayer tried to use its
massive financial muscle to prevent members
of the public having access to important
health and environmental data about
substances that are sprayed on our food crops
every day. Bayer has gone to great lengths
and expense to keep its data out of the
public domain but in the end caved in because
our case was right.”
“Friends of the Earth's victory is a major
step towards lifting the veil of corporate
secrecy that surrounds pesticide approvals.
It is an important signal to big business
that we will not be silenced. It's high time
the corporations making pesticides and
chemicals moved into the 21st century and
supported full access to information instead
of resorting to bullying tactics in the
courts”.
Bayer market many pesticides world wide
which pose a threat to the environment and
health [5]. Last month, the French Government
banned Bayer's pesticide 'Gaucho' because of
the threat it poses to honey bees [5] until
the product undergoes a further EU safety
review in 2006. Other Bayer pesticides
include Aldicarb, one of the most toxic
chemicals still approved - Bayer successfully
lobbied to prevent an EU wide ban last year
and continues to keep the product on the
market beyond 2007. The Bayer weed killer IPU
is frequently detected in rivers during the
winter months and has to be filtered out from
water going into public at high cost to the
water companies to comply with EU drinking
water limits.
Friends of the Earth has been campaigning
for full access to information for many
years. It argues that companies that market
pesticides and other potentially toxic
chemicals must recognise the public has a
right to know the potential impact of being
exposed to them through breathing, eating and
drinking. Public access is also important
because it means that independent scientists
can monitor the effectiveness of the
regulatory process in protecting people and
the environment.
NOTES to Editors
[1] In 2000 Friends of the Earth asked the
Pesticides Safety Directorate for copies of
data supporting Bayer's application to use
their weed killer glufosinate ammonium on GM
crops in the Government sponsored farm scale
evaluations. PSD eventually agreed to release
the documents at which point Bayer sought a
judicial review to prevent them releasing the
information. After a two day hearing in May
2003, Bayer agreed to an out of court
settlement which allowed Friends of the Earth
to have “read-only” access to the data. In
the meantime, Friends of the Earth
established that copies of some of the data
being denied them in the UK was available
from other pesticide regulators around the
world. Copies of some documents were obtained
from the Swedish regulator KEMI and from the
USA's EPA and also from the Danish
Environmental Protection Agency.
[3] Please note that the owner of the data
retains proprietary rights in respect of
information contained in documents obtained
from regulatory authorities which also may be
subject to copyright protection and other
intellectual property rights (including the
protection of confidential information).
Making further copies, distributing or
publishing the documents whether for
commercial purposes or otherwise, or
permitting or assisting any third party to do
so, outside the terms of relevant national
legislation (being the national legislation
of the country in which the copy documents
have been obtained or received) may give rise
to criminal or civil liability.
4. Media Briefing on pesticides:
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/media_briefing/bayerpesticides.pdf
5 Bayer acts to keep Temik available to
vegetable growers. Grower. December 11 2003
P.
6. Additional information: Friends of the
Earth's proposals for access to information
on pesticides available on request.
Contact:
Phil Michaels, Legal Advisor, Friends of the
Earth Tel +44 20 7249 9399 / +44 7712 038
890
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