LETTER: Attempt to create pesticide 'hysteria'?
By Contributor
To the editor,
I have to say, the article by Ms. Daghofer and Ms. Sears (PhD) (I could not find her name in the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario’s researchers list) was an interesting read. Apparently the Special Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides is placing a blind faith in Health Canada’s Pest management Regulatory Agency.
What a telling statement “placing blind faith” is, it tells me that someone has said harrumph, and lashed out because the evidence and superior arguments they thought they had, were not enough to convince the committee.
What the decision really says is that these special interest groups have not produced any evidence or data to even create a smidgen of doubt in the minds of the Committee members. Not even enough to suggest to the Committee members that a moratorium needs to be implemented in order to gather more information.
The authors then proceed to suggest that the PMRA should be conducting business in a different manner, implying that the present procedures are faulty. They are aware that the PMRA operates under Health Canada, a body which regulates products (medicines) that aim to kill and otherwise control bacteria, parasites, infections, the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body, and I’m sure a host of other things.
Are they suggesting that the procedure they would like to see implemented by the PMRA be different than the procedure used by Health Canada? The PMRA should be using more stringent measures for products used to kill weeds then Health Canada should use on drugs used to kill things in humans? I’m not a doctor anymore than the authors are applicators, so I may be getting a schooling, and that’s all right with me, I am always learning.
I commend them in their concerns, but it seems that attempting to create hysteria by publishing articles such as this displays nothing more than disgruntled individuals, with some intent in mind, who can not present valid science, documentation, or data and must now revert to scaring the public so as to achieve their purpose. It seems that the Special Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides saw the same thing.
Henry Van Der Molen
Vernon
Mr. Van Der Molen is a contract sprayer with Supergreen Lawn and Tree Care.
