From AEHA-Ottawa - New report on pesticide poisonings

[Guest guest]

Forwarded...

 

 

Hello

 

The David Suzuki Foundation today released a report on acute pesticide

poisonings.  It's available on our web site at:

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Publications/Northern_exposure.asp. 

The Ottawa Citizen ran a story on it this morning (see below), and I think

this would be a prime opportunity for letters to the editor in support of an

anti-pesticide bylaw.  I hope some of you can write in!  People could also send

their councillors a copy of the article with the same message.

 

I also want to acknowledge the help of Gideon Forman, Meg Sears, and Mike

Christie in getting this report off the ground!

 

Cheers,

 

Lisa

 

 

 

Pesticide poisonings 'shocking'

Survey reveals 'much bigger problem than anybody previously suspected'

       

Kelly Patterson

The Ottawa Citizen     

Thursday, June 21, 2007

 

More than 6,000 Canadians -- almost half of them children -- suffer acute

pesticide poisoning every year, according to the first comprehensive national

survey of the issue.

 

" The numbers are shocking, " says Gideon Forman, executive director of the

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. " It is very worrisome

that almost half of the victims were under six years old. "

 

" This is a much bigger problem than anybody previously suspected, " says David

Boyd, author of the report, which was based on data from poison control

centres across the country.

 

Mr. Boyd's report tracked only acute pesticide poisonings -- those resulting

in immediate effects, such as blistering of the skin, respiratory distress,

heart palpitations and vomiting.

 

Suspected chronic effects of pesticides, such as a higher risk of cancer,

neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, birth defects and organ damage, were

not taken into account in the report, which was released today by the David

Suzuki Foundation.

 

More than 2,800 children under the age of six suffer acute pesticide

poisoning in Canada every year, comprising 46.5 per cent of all recorded cases,

the

report found. Quebec had the highest number of reported pesticide poisonings,

with 2,096, followed by Ontario with 1,629, and Alberta with 1,021.

 

Provinces with large populations of farmers had the highest per-capita

incidence: 33 per 100,000 for Saskatchewan and 30 per 100,000 for Alberta.

Ontario

had a reported 13 cases per 100,000.

 

Mr. Boyd says the report's findings fall below the actual incidence of

poisonings, noting that there are no national standards for collecting the data.

 

The Maritime provinces, for example, don't report how many pesticide

poisonings involve children, and Manitoba provided only partial data.

 

" It was obvious from conversations with doctors and staff at a number of

poison control centres that there is an urgent need for more resources ...

standardized reporting and recording, and a national approach, " the report says.

 

By contrast, the U.S. has a state-of-the-art tracking system for all poisons

that gathers real-time data from more than 60 poison-control centres, breaking

the data down into the source of the poison, the severity of its effects, age

of the patient and other factors of interest to health officials.

 

The federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) says manufacturers and

some poisoning victims have, in the past, come forward every year to report

acute exposures; these typically amount to only five to 20 cases a year.

 

But the agency, which sets the safety rules for pesticides, recently expanded

this program, making incident reports mandatory for manufacturers, says

agency spokesman Jean-Pierre Lachaine.

 

It has received 20 to 30 reports since that rule came into effect in April,

said Mr. Lachaine. So far, all have been minor incidents, he said.

 

And the PMRA is setting up a website for the public and health-care

professionals to report poisoning incidents electronically. These reports, along

with

agency analyses of the data, will be posted on the web once the program begins

near the end of the year, he adds.

 

" That's a step forward, " says Dr. Robin Walker, former chief of neonatology

at CHEO. " Canada has been lagging well behind the U.S. in this regard. "

 

However, he adds that the reporting of pesticide poisonings by health workers

should be mandatory so that cases don't fall between the cracks.

 

Dr. Walker, a leader in last year's unsuccessful push for a bylaw to restrict

cosmetic pesticides in Ottawa, says such issues are urgent in Canada, arguing

that regulations here are " not rigorous, " especially when it comes to

assessing the potential effects of chronic, low-level exposure to pesticides.

 

Mr. Boyd agrees, noting that about 1,000 pesticide products available in

Canada are banned in other nations.

 

 

 

______________________________

Lisa Gue

Environmental Health Policy Analyst

David Suzuki Foundation

606, 251 Bank St.

Ottawa, ON  K2P 1X3

(613) 594-5428