Pesticide Firms Hid Brain Toxicity Studies From EU Regulators

Pesticide firms withheld a series of studies assessing brain toxicity from EU regulators, despite the same studies having been submitted to US authorities.

According to The Guardian:

When the EU authorities were made aware of the studies, between 14 and 21 years after they were conducted, new safety limits were applied in some cases and evaluation is still under way in other cases.

The researchers described the omissions as “outrageous”, concluding that “apparently non-disclosure is a problem that is not rare” and that there could be “no reliable safety evaluation of pesticides by EU authorities without full access to all performed toxicity studies”.

The new research is the first systematic assessment of non-disclosure and focused only on developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) studies.

The researchers found 35 DNT studies submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency as part of the pesticide approval process but found that nine of these had not been included in dossiers sent to the EU authorities for the same pesticides.

Among the findings in the undisclosed studies were changes in brain size, delayed sexual maturation and reduced weight gain in the offspring of laboratory rats exposed to a pesticide when pregnant.

The pesticides identified in the new study include the insecticides abamectin, ethoprophos and pyridaben and the fungicide fluazinam. These are, or have been, used on a range of crops including tomatoes, strawberries, potatoes and aubergines.

“Brains are unbelievably complex and so central for us being humans, and damage to brain development is immensely costly to societies,” said Dr Axel Mie, at Stockholm University, Sweden, who led the new study. “So it’s really important for us to make sure that the chemical products we use are not damaging the brains of our kids and grandchildren.”

Prof Christina Rudén, study co-author and also at Stockholm University, said: “Most important to me is the principle to have to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is outrageous, what they’re doing.”

Sarah Wiener, a Green party MEP from Austria and the European parliament rapporteur for new EU pesticide regulation proposals, said: “The analysis shows that the pesticide industry is fooling EU authorities. In the end, it is EU citizens who pay the price. Their health is jeopardised when relevant studies are withheld.”

“The EU therefore needs to make sure that there are harsh consequences for the withholding of data,” she said. “This could mean that corporations would have to pay considerable fines.”

EU regulations state that pesticide dossiers should “include a full and unbiased report of the studies conducted [unless] it is not necessary owing to the nature of the product or its proposed uses, or it is not scientifically necessary. In such a case a justification shall be provided.”

A spokesperson for the European Commission said: “There is a clear obligation to submit all available adverse data as part of applications since 2013, and there is an obligation to notify adverse data when they become available since 1991.”

The power to penalise companies if they unlawfully fail to disclose toxicity studies in Europe lies with national regulators.

But no known penalty has been imposed on any pesticide company to date. The UK pesticides regulator, the Health and Safety Executive, did not answer a request for comment.

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