Investigations

Authorities in Poland don’t check farmers spread of chlorpyrifos

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In Poland increased chlorpyriphos was detected for quite a long time due to a mistake made by the Ministry of Agricultare. In 2016, a regulation that amended the standards for the pesticide, wasn’t introduced until June, when all the farmers had already sprayed fruits and vegetables. The Ministry started to inform about the changing standards too late. According to the story in Newsweek, farmers do not follow legal acts on an ongoing basis. They are guided by common sense: the protection program and the content written on the labels of pesticides.

Investigations

Covering chlorpyrifos

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The project on chlorpyrifos was first published 17th of June 2019 in EUObserver covering warnings from scientists because of its effect on humans, spread of the poison in food, the legal battle in EU and the fact that it was becoming banned in more and more countries. At the same time, market analysts predict the market to expand in the next five years. Chlorpyrifos might be banned in the EU from the beginning of next year. On the same day all the material was released on this website with the overview of the team-members. Le Monde, France, uncovered how only one study from Dow looked into the neurotoxicology of chlorpyrifos.

Investigations

On your dinner plate and in your body: the most dangerous pesticide you’ve never heard of

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updated 17/6 klokken 07.26

Harvest of melons in the province of Murcia in Spain. Photo Marcos García Rey

Scientists say there is no acceptable dose to avoid brain damage. Its use is banned in several European countries. Yet its residues are found in fruit baskets, on dinner plates, and in human urine samples from all over Europe. Now producers are pushing for a renewed EU-approval – perhaps in vain.

Investigations

One study only paved way for chlorpyrifos

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Chlorpyrifos has been used in EU despite the manufacturer’s study on developmental neurotoxicity is criticized for being invalid. Photo Marcos García Rey. The EU-approval of the pesticide chlorpyrifos was based on one single study concerning possible damages on the developing brain, commissioned by the producer Dow in 1998. Dow has been asked to provide a new study on developmental neurotoxicity, but rejected to comply. A spokesperson for EFSA (European Food Safety Agency) says to Le Monde:

“We can confirm that during the evaluation of chlorpyrifos in 2013 the only one available study on developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) was from 1998 and had several limitations (e.g. lack of findings in the positive control, exposure period from gestational day 6 to lactation day 11 (instead of 21), lower number of individuals for neuropathology (6 instead of 10) and for learning and memory (8 instead of 10), etc.).”

Spain is acting as the Rapporteur Member State for the UE in the renewal procedure which will end in January 2020.

Investigations

Ketil Hylland: “Chlorpyrifos is a nerve poison”

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Professor Ketil Hylland at the Department of Biosciences at the University of Oslo (private photo):

“Chlorpyrifos is a nerve poison that affects the transmission of signals between nerve cells. Previously, the common belief was that the substance disappeared quickly from the environment and affected people to a small extent, but gradually one has understood how harmful it is.” Hylland has been working on pollutants and pollution in water for decades. He led the Environmental Toxication Committee, which produced a report to environmental minister Erik Solheim in 2010, and in the past year he has led experiments with chlorpyrifos on cod, a fish living in Norway’s salt water fjords.”We wanted to see how the drug affects both general health and behavior. We saw that chlorpyrifos clearly affected the nervous system of the cod.

Agribusiness

US blocks antibiotic measures in TTIP

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EU attempts to regulate against antimicrobial resistance are opposed by the US in the TTIP-negotiations. American and interests and ”stakeholders” threaten proposed EU-legislation

 

The EU wants to reduce farmer’s use of antibiotics in animal feed. The US does not want any such measures written into a TTIP- agreement. »That’s how we understand it, although we haven’t been told right out and we haven’t got access to any negotiating texts to prove it,« says Zoltán Massay-Kosubek from European Public Health Alliance (EPHA), an umbrella organisation for health related interest groups in Brussels. EPHA takes regularly part in TTIP Advisory Group, a forum set up by the Commission to promote the understanding of TTIP among interest groups.

Agribusiness

Drug resistance: How superbug-infected pigs from Denmark get into Britain unchecked

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Pigs infected with the superbug MRSA can be freely imported into the UK due to regulatory loopholes, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveal. An investigation has established that there is no mandatory screening for live breeding pigs leaving Denmark – where MRSA is rife throughout the country’s herd – and entering the UK. Experts are warning that if no action is taken, the UK’s pig herd could rapidly become infected. Such an epidemic could have a serious impact on human health, according to leading Danish microbiologist and MRSA expert, Professor Hans Jørn Kolmos. Thousands of people have contracted the livestock-associated strain of MRSA in Denmark and six have died from it in the last five years.

Agribusiness

Poor results: Giving up on resistant bacteria in Danish pigs

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In Denmark, there are more than twice as many pigs as humans, and twice as many antibiotics given to the animals as well. A perfect breeding ground for resistant bacteria – to which politics have failed to respond.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In November 2013, a 63-year-old man with diabetes and end-stage kidney got fever because of inflammation. Samples of blood grew the resistant pig-bacteria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA, CC398. Three weeks later the man died.

Agribusiness

Nye 2015-tal: Svin og mink er de helt dominerende MRSA-smittekilder

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Mens 68 pct. procent af de konventionelle svinebedrifter har MRSA CC398, er der kun konstateret smittebærende svin hos seks procent af de økologiske svinebedrifter. Det viser Fødevarestyrelsens screening fra efteråret 2015. I minkindustrien er derimod hver femte virksomhed (23 pct.) inficeret med MRSA CC398, og som noget nyt blev der også fundet MRSA CC398 hos 10 pct. af de undersøgte besætninger med slagtekvæg.

Agribusiness

Den hemmelige svinestreg

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Revisorer har konstateret udbredt bilagsfusk med EU-midler i en række projekter i Videncenter for Svineproduktion. Fødevareministeriet har for et halvt år siden i stilhed lukket sagen uden at anmelde den til bagmandspolitiet eller EU, og ministeriet har valgt kun at undersøge en meget begrænset del af centrets projekter. Efter at der har været lukket for pengekassen i to år, må Seges, som centret hedder i dag, igen modtage EU-støtte. Straks alarmen lød fra Deloitte, trådte direktør Søren Gade i karakter. Revisionsfirmaet havde meddelt, at der var konstateret “væsentlige fejl” i et projektregnskab i Videncenter for Svineproduktion (VSP).