MONTREAL, Canada, September 26, 2003 (ENS):
The governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States
begin a meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico on Monday to
decide what to do about lindane, part of a family of
chemicals that are the most common pesticide pollutants
in Canada’s Arctic.
The meeting is being convened by the Commission for
Environmental Cooperation (CEC), a joint body set up by
the three countries as part of a side agreement to the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The stakes are high for Canada in this meeting.
Lindane not only stands to compromise the health of
Canadians, it is also the subject of a $100 million
action being brought against the Canadian government.
Crompton Corporation, an American pesticide
manufacturer formerly known as Uniroyal, is asking for
$100 million in compensation after the Canadian
government de-registered lindane for use on Canadian
canola crops.
Crompton notified Canadian authorities in November
2001 that it would pursue the NAFTA claim under Chapter
11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
A deal to scrap lindane use in all of North America
would likely affect the company’s claims for damages.
Not only does Crompton want compensation for alleged
financial losses, but it also wants the Canadian
government to reinstate its registration for lindane
products used on canola seed.
Canada did not ban the use of lindane for canola due to
health or environmental concerns, but forbid the use of
lindane for canola seed after it became a trade dispute
with the United States, which forbids the use of lindane
on canola.
Lindane is a white crystalline organic solid. In the
United States, most uses were restricted in 1983, but
lindane is currently used primarily for treating
wood-inhabiting beetles and seeds. It is also used as a
dip for fleas and lice on pets, and it is used on
children and their families for treating head lice and
scabies.
In the United States, lindane is also used on
livestock, for soil treatment, on the foliage of fruit
and nut trees, vegetables, timber, ornamental plants and
for wood protection, according to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
The chemical is transported to the Arctic on air
currents, and tends to stay and concentrate there.
Humans are exposed to lindane primarily through
consumption of seals, as well as narwhals, caribou, and
fish.
A document prepared for the CEC concludes,
“Aboriginal and northern populations are particularly
at risk given the evidence of high levels of lindane in
their diet.”
Lindane is found in air, water and soil samples
throughout the world and has been documented in human
breast milk and amniotic fluid.
Long term exposure to lindane can lead to kidney,
liver, and nervous system damage, and is thought to be
linked to cancer, and to weaken peoples’ ability to
fight off disease.
Lindane persists for decades in the environment.
Because of its volatility, more than 99 percent of it
may be lost to the atmosphere following application as a
pesticide.
Lindane is considered an endocrine disrupting
chemical and persistent organic pollutant because it
travels long distances and breaks down very slowly.
Conservationists would like to see lindane regulated by
the Stockholm Convention on Persistant Organic
Pollutants.
“This chemical should eventually be included in the
Stockholm Convention, the first international deal to
limit and eventually eliminate such chemicals,” says
Karen Wristen, executive director of the Canadian Arctic
Resources Committee, a citizens' organization.
“This meeting of the CEC gives us a chance to start
with a regional action plan, and to work toward an
international ban,” she said.
The Stockholm Convention, which bans 12 persistant
organic pollutants, does not yet cover lindane, but
negotiations are under way to ban the pesticide.
People do not have to live in the Arctic to be at
risk for lindane exposure. Bob Weinhold, writing in the
June 2001 issue of the National Institutes of
Environmental Health Sciences journal
"Environmental Health Perspectives," said,
"Lindane pervades the food supply."
"In the Total Diet Study, an FDA [U.S. Food
& Drug Administration] project published in
September 2000, lindane was found in dozens of foods,
such as evaporated milk, ground beef, pork chops,
chicken, lima beans, peanuts, popcorn, and breads.
"The levels of contamination aren't sufficient
to cause health problems, FDA officials say. But little
information exists on the interactions lindane may be
having with the dozen or more other chemical
contaminants typically associated with food
production," wrote Weinhold, "for instance,
benzene and chlorpyrifos, that are often found in tandem
with lindane."
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