Justice systems send strong signals: don’t touch multinationals, Bayer and so on

In December 2022, a reader living in Wales drew attention to Reuters report that Bayer, France’s crop chemical and pharmaceutical group, has been ordered to pay miserly compensation of 11,135 euros (£9565) to a French farmer who inhaled fumes from a weedkiller, ending a 15-year legal battle.

Farmer Paul Francois had argued that the fumes he inhaled in 2004 from the weedkiller Lasso caused neurological problems, including memory loss, fainting and headaches. It was withdrawn from the French market in 2007, many years after it was banned in Canada, Belgium and the UK. 

Anti-pesticide groups supporting his campaign expressed disappointment over the sum: “11,135 euros for 15 years of life put between brackets, of sleepless nights, I would perhaps have done better to use this time to play the lottery,” he told French public radio (France-Justice),

After a court ruled in 2019 that Monsanto, which had meanwhile become a subsidiary of Bayer, was liable for providing inadequate safety information on Lasso, France’s highest court in 2020 rejected a final company appeal, opening the way for another court to decide on damages.

Francois’ verdict: “This is a strong signal from our justice system in France: We don’t touch these multinationals.”

Two years later our reader in Wales has drawn attention to a Reuters article reporting that the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas ordered Bayer on Friday to pay $2.25 billion to John McKivison (right). The jury found that his non-Hodgkins lymphoma was the result of using Roundup for yard work at his house in Pennsylvania for a period of several years. 

The verdict includes $250 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages. Bayer disagreed with the jury’s adverse verdict and believes that they have strong arguments on appeal to get this verdict overturned and the unconstitutionally excessive damage award eliminated or reduced. The verdict comes after five other recent wins late last year by plaintiffs suing Bayer over Roundup but – as Bayer pointed out – some previous damages awards had been reduced by more than 90%.

Last year produced verdicts against the company totalling more than $2 billion. Bayer is appealing those verdicts, which include large punitive damages awards and are likely to be reduced because they exceed U.S. Supreme Court guidance.

Reader Richard Bruce recommends this detailed account:
Groundskeeper, 49, from Pennsylvania is awarded record $2.25BILLION after jury finds decades of using Roundup weed killer caused his blood cancer | Daily Mail Online

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Richard Bruce: the system protects itself and doesn’t care a jot for the health of the population

Richard wrote after hearing Prime Minister’s Questions on January 10^th, which focussed on the injustices suffered by the Post Office workers.

He was seriously affected by organophosphate poisoning while working as a farm manager many years ago and now spends time raising awareness about the dangers that can be presented by organophosphate pesticide exposure, and how difficult it can be to seek medical treatment after the fact (Technology Networks). He writes:

The reality is that when the public come knocking on the doors of this Chamber seeking justice the Government only ever answers when they have no options left.

The leader of the Opposition said last week that the public are right to be angry at Westminster and they are angry at Westminster. They are angry at Westminster because they know that this place never really changes.

Just ask the WASPI women or the victims of the Equitable Life scandal or the victims of the infected blood scandal or the victim’s families from Grenfell or Hillsborough,

To that list we could add cases involving Asbestos, Thalidomide, Gulf War Syndrome, Aerotoxic Syndrome, OP poisoning, Covid, Vaccine damage, breast and mesh implants, pesticides, radiation, fluoride, mercury, lead, sewage pollution and many more.

Always the system protects itself and cares not a jot for the health of the population. 

They test sewage to determine the presence of Covid yet allow people to swim in it.

The World Health Organisation confirms that millions have been harmed by organophosphates alone and yet the avoidable suffering continues year on year as known risks are officially denied here in the UK, even in people scientifically diagnosed as having been poisoned.

They are denied the correct diagnosis, antidotes and correct treatments and they too have faced gross deception deliberately designed to defraud them and prevent access to justice. Yet still nothing is done to stop the unlawful abuse of the rights of vulnerable people.

 

 

 

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Lithium used in batteries: HSE seeks post Brexit ‘freedoms’ which pose serious health hazards

The Financial Times reports that in order to bolster investment in the UK electric car supply chain, the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) a government agency is considering reclassifying lithium, currently labelled ‘toxic’ under EU regulation (see the European Chemicals Agency website). 

Lithium is used in electric vehicle batteries and governments all over the world are offering subsidies to promote investment in the mining, refining and construction of gigafactories.

Dr. Nikhil Koratkar, Professor in Engineering at New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (below right), explains that nearly every metal and chemical process involved in the lithium battery manufacturing chain creates health hazards at some point between sourcing and disposal. He continues:

“The organic liquids used in most electrolyte formulations are both mildly toxic when ingested and can irritate the eyes and skin. Inhaling their vapors may cause nausea, vomiting, or headaches. Overexposure to lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF6) salts affects the digestive, circulatory, respiratory, and nervous systems, skin, and bones. Ingestion is the most dangerous path of entry into the body, but inhalation and skin contact can also be harmful.

“The only true option is to move away from lithium-based chemistries completely. Technologies currently under development leverage metals and materials that are dramatically less toxic, or inherently non-toxic. These batteries should pose fewer risks across every step of the battery lifecycle, from sourcing to manufacture to disposal”.

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Banning or reducing pesticide use? Companies lobby for incentives instead of legally binding measures

Bayer products have been the focus of four posts on this site and referred to in many others.  Like other pesticide manufacturers, it is stoutly resisting attempts to ban damaging products by hiring ‘influencers’ in France and other countries.

In the United States Bayer is facing thousands of cases claiming that Roundup’s active ingredient glyphosate caused cancer and other diseases and there are calls for a ban in Britain, the latest coming from Richard Bruce. who is working with his MP. 

In December 2022 a reader living in Wales drew attention to Reuters report that Bayer, France’s crop chemical and pharmaceutical group – after a 15-year legal battle – had been ordered to pay a ‘miserly’ compensation of 11,135 euros (£9565) to a French farmer who inhaled fumes from Bayer’s weedkiller Lasso, which caused neurological problems, including memory loss, fainting and headaches.

Francois’ verdict: Farmer Paul Francois (left) said “11,000 euros for so much sacrifice, 11,135 euros for 15 years of life put between brackets, of sleepless nights, I would perhaps have done better to use this time to play the lottery”.(France-Justice).This is a strong signal from our justice system in France: ‘We don’t touch these multinationals’.”

Vakita, an activist video-on-demand platform, reports that in 2021, a manufacturer of pesticides paid an Instagrammer with 700,000 followers to defend a herbicide, which the EU was threatening to ban due to its risk to wildlife and the environment.

A full data set of the evidence on this table is available on request from DeSmog. It can also be viewed in DeSmog’s Agribusiness database, which includes profiles of all the above listed companies.

Industry has lobbied hard to ensure these targets don’t become law

The Big Ag lobby in Brussels has repeatedly suggested that the EU should not focus on legally binding cuts in agrochemical use, and sought to replace the ambitious targets already agreed by the European Parliament with weaker alternatives.

While the industry states that it is not against the principle of setting targets, it has opposed them in practice, labelling EU targets in the “SUR” pesticides-reduction plan as “non-data based”, “unrealistic”, “pointless” and “counterproductive”.

In 2021, for example, farm lobby COPA-COGECA sent MEPs numerous industry-friendly amendments to the sustainable farming strategy – and suggested the removal of commitments that would make targets legally binding.

The message – which echoes positions often used by the fossil fuel lobby – is that EU policy should optimise incentives (see Discourses of climate delay, Cambridge journal opposite). As pesticide trade body CropLife Europe says: “let’s focus on transition, not just targets”. 

Meanwhile, as CPR reports, people will continue to suffer short-term health effects, including stinging eyes, rashes, blisters, nausea, dizziness , diarrhoea. Young children (EPA, p3), farm workers and pesticide applicators who  receive greater exposures are more vulnerable.

Chronic conditions due to pesticide exposure include cancers, birth defects, reproductive harm, immunotoxicity, neurological and developmental toxicity and disruption of the endocrine systemwhich are described on several US government websites (links above).

 

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Those unions which are now monitoring the causes of ill-health amongst their members are to be commended

Tony Burke, the president of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, which involves Unite, GMB, Community and Prospect, reports that welding fumes are shown to cause cancers — and the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU), along with the Alex Ferry Foundation, a charity linked to the CSEU, has launched the Breathe Safe campaign to raise awareness.

CSEU general secretary Ian Waddell said: “We believe that the numbers of welders diagnosed with these conditions is the tip of the iceberg. We want welders, retired workers and also their families to understand what the symptoms look like so they can take immediate action.”

Four years ago, the Health and Safety Executive issued a safety alert about the link between mild steel welding fume and cancer: “Many studies report increased risk of lung cancer in welders or other workers exposed to welding fumes. The International Association for Research on Cancer concludes that all welding fume can cause lung cancer and may cause kidney cancer, classifying all welding fume as Group 1 carcinogenic substances.”

A welder at work in Bosch Thermotechnology in Chesterfield

The Breathe Safe campaign — funded by the CSEU and the Alex Ferry Foundation, named after a former CSEU general secretary — is working with the all-party parliamentary group on respiratory disease.

It recommends anyone exposed to welding fume in transport repair, construction and machinery manufacturing see their doctor for regular check-ups and employers to offer annual health checks and provide proper ventilation equipment.

Those unions which now monitor the causes of ill-health amongst their members are to be commended. 20 years ago a power engineer died of the most serious form of brain tumour but when his widow asked his union (now amalgamated with Prospect) if they recorded the causes of death amongst their members, they said that they did not. With hindsight she wishes she had taken this apparent negligence further, to help others in the profession.

 

 

 

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TSMC, Merck, Apple, Bosch and IBM are addressing their use of toxic PFAS

In March, the EU began a public consultation on proposals to ban the whole class of up to 10,000 chemicals known as polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), with a 13.5-year “transition” period for the chip industry.

basic structure of PFAS

Evidence is growing that fluoropolymers, the hard plastic PFAS, are toxic for humans and the environment. Read more in the US government’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences’ website.

PFAS – forever chemicals – are used to make critical coating materials and chemical-resistant parts for the semiconductors used in smartphones, firefighters’ suits, aircraft, electric vehicles, microchips and batteries.

Cheng Ting-Fang (right)*, award-winning tech and business journalist, who covers the global semiconductor and hardware supply chain explains in the FT:

PFAS molecules in discarded materials do not break down easily, and instead accumulate in the environment and human organs. Scientists are increasingly concerned about severe health consequences. Studies have found PFAS in the blood of 99 per cent of Americans and unsafe levels in the drinking water and soil of both US and European citizens. The US Environmental Protection Agency has warned that even near-zero levels of PFAS could pose a threat to human health.

Members of the European Chemical Industry Council, including Bayer, Dow Europe and BASF spent €12mn in 2022 on EU lobbying, enlisting advisers to petition Brussels hoping to delay the ban or gain exemptions, according to LobbyFacts, a tool for investigating lobbying at EU institutions.

Governments should bear in mind the cost of treating PFAS-related damage to health

The Nordic Council of Ministers, European PFAS-related health costs could reach up to €84bn a year for the treatment of diseases linked to exposure such as liver damage, kidney cancer and thyroid disease (one of several articles)

Reach is the main EU law to protect human health and the environment from the risks that chemicals can pose. EU Commissioner Sinkevicius has announced that the 2019=2o24 work on restricting all other PFAS uses is under way and the Commission will prepare the legal text for this restriction as soon as the procedure in the Chemicals Agency is completed.

Martin Mulvihill is a chemist and founder of Safer Made, a ‘cleantech’ venture capital fund investing in companies and technologies that reduce people’s exposure to harmful chemicals. He believes the chemicals are overused. “We have already seen in certain sectors like food and textile that we absolutely have been able to eliminate PFAS,” Mulvihill says, “I bet we can get rid of 70-80%”.

TSMC, Merck and Bosch told the FT that they had a long-term reduction plan to eliminate the chemicals and Intel has pledged no “new” PFAS use in its supply chain. Apple, as one of the tech industry’s biggest users of the chemicals, ranked first out of 50 companies for having the strongest safer chemicals policy, has committed to phasing them out over the long-term.

IBM Research Europe has three laboratories in Europe; and, with four partners: OntoChem, the University of Pittsburgh, Cornell University, and NuMat Technologies (and guidance from a PFAS Consortium). It is actively addressing the environmental and human health impact of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ and accelerating the discovery of sustainable replacements and improved capture materials. Recently IBM was awarded a 2022 Convergence Accelerator Phase 1 award by the National Science Foundation to help to build and demonstrate these capabilities.

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* Cheng Ting-Fang is co-winner of the Hinrich Foundation Award for Distinguished Reporting on Trade from the National Press Foundation in 2022; Best in Business SABEW Awards and has a track record of breaking news with stories related to Apple, Huawei, tsmc, Intel, Google, HP, Dell, Oppo, Xiaomi, Honor, Arm and their supply chains.

 

 

 

 

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FT focus: antimicrobial resistance, a global public health threat

The FT editorial board reports the World Health Organisation’s warning that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a top global public health threat

Bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics caused 1.3mn deaths worldwide in 2019, more than malaria; by 2050 the toll is expected to reach 10mn a year (Lancet).

Attention has been focussed largely on overprescription of antibiotics by doctors, leading to excessive consumption by humans, but overuse in largescale farming and livestock production can fuel resistance and he emergence of drug-resistant superbugs in people.

Though the pharmaceutical industry has committed $1bn to fighting drug-resistant superbugs, it prefers funding more lucrative medicines. No new classes of antibiotics have been brought into circulation since the 1980s.

Higher temperatures due to climate change are making outbreaks of various illnesses – which require antibiotic treatment – more common and more severe; flooding can spread disease through sewage contamination. Poorer countries in Africa and Asia – often worst affected by climate change — will again be among the hardest hit.

Public Interest Research Group graphic, link: https://pirg.org/updates/update-consumers-medical-professionals-and-ranchers-urge-mcdonalds-reduce-antibiotic/

Three FT journalists now report that two of Europe’s largest asset managers will this week try to increase the pressure on McDonald’s to reduce the use of antibiotics in its food supply chain, highlighting what they say is the risk antimicrobial resistance poses to shareholder returns and the wider economy.

Legal & General Investment Management, Amundi and other institutions are backing a resolution at its annual meeting, calling on the group to “institute a policy that the company comply with WHO guidelines on the use of medically important antimicrobials in food-producing animals”.

In another FT article, Andrew Jack sees the resolution, which has been tabled by Shareholder Commons, a non-profit advocacy organisation, as a sign of the growing concern among some investors about the systemic impact and broader economic threat of antimicrobial resistance.

The World Bank has predicted that by 2050, drug-resistant infections could cause global economic damage on par with the 2008 financial crisis due to adverse impacts on GDP, global poverty, world trade, healthcare costs and ‘livestock output’.

This “silent pandemic” requires the intervention of investors and governments at a global level. But as yet, McDonald’s is standing firm and urging shareholders to reject the latest resolution, saying it has a “strong record of responsible antibiotic use” across its supply chain.

 

 

 

 

 

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Justice Pesticides highlights the return of Chlordane in imported food

From 1948 to 1988 chlordane, manufactured by the agrochemical company Velsicol, was used in the United States as a pesticide on agricultural crops, lawns, gardens, and homes. In 1988, its Environmental Protection Agency banned all uses of Chlordane.

Justice Pesticides aims to record all the legal cases that question pesticides in order to establish a legal and scientific database that will strengthen legal actions. It reported that on October 13, 2022, the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against Velsicol for the environmental damage caused by one of its products, chlordane.

EPA surveys an monitors lake trout. Lake Michigan trout have the highest levels of chlordane, followed by Lake Ontario, with average levels in Lakes Superior, Huron, and Erie fish.

The District’s natural resources, including its waterways, are still contaminated today by the chlordane used by Velsicol until its ban in 1988

Decades before the ban, Velsicol knew that chlordane was a persistent toxin that could leach into waterways, disperse into the environment and threaten human health. Indeed, in the early 1970s, Velsicol’s internal studies confirmed that the chemical causes cancer.

Rather than stopping sales and sharing this information with the public or regulators, Velsicol engaged in a campaign of misinformation and deception to continue selling its chlordane products.

According to the district’s attorney general, Karl A. Racine “With today’s lawsuit, we are going after Velsicol which – for decades – made dollar after dollar of profit while poisoning DC residents with dangerous chemicals that they knew caused severe health problems, including cancer.”

The persistence of chlordane in rivers and streams costs the District tens of millions of dollars each year. Through this complaint, they are now seeking damages to bring the health and environmental situation under control.

Today, Chlordane can still be manufactured legally in the United States, but may only be sold to and used by foreign countries:

“The circle comes back on itself when foreign food products are imported into the US, e.g., 42,000 pounds of Honduran beef arrived with chlordane residues 8 times the US limits and was sold before authorities were alerted” (PUBMED).

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Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment: Dr Eva Novotny

Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment

Dr Eva Novotny

 Dr Eva Novotny has responded to a recent post which concluded that successive governments have injured the health of their people by allowing harmful products to be manufactured and used instead of banning them:

“Contamination of our food must be an important contributor to illness (in addition to the nutrient-poor diets of many people). 

“Agricultural pesticides enter crops and residues can remain.  If the current UK Government proceeds to introduce genetically modified (GM) foods and crops into this country, there will be far more contamination of our diet.

Most GM crops have been designed to tolerate Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup (in fact, the original purpose for creating GM crops was to further the sale of Roundup after its patent expired — so much for the claim that GM crops would reduce pesticide use!).  The declared active ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate, but glyphosate has relatively little effect as a herbicide, while the other ingredients are far more powerful. .

“Gene-edited foods, despite the claims of safety, carry many of the same risks as the older GM crops plus additional dangers: the precision claimed refers to the ability to target a specific gene, which was not possible with the older GM methods.  However, the manipulation of the specific gene causes many additional, uncontrollable changes in the chromosome: insertions, deletions and scrambles of genetic material.  Then, once the specific gene has been edited, a multi-stage process is necessary to produce a whole new organism, just as in the case of the older GMOs.

“Unfortunately, regulators in the EU assess only the “active ingredient”, glyphosate, not Roundup, for harm to health and the environment.  The assessment procedure itself is corrupt.   I have published a paper on these topics.”

Glyphosate, Roundup and the Failures of Regulatory Assessment

Abstract

Roundup is the most widely used herbicide in agriculture. It contains glyphosate as the ‘active ingredient’, together with formulants. There are various versions of Roundup, with somewhat different effects depending on the formulants.

Most genetically-modified crops are designed to tolerate Roundup, thus allowing spraying against weeds during the growing season of the crop without destroying it. Having been so heavily used, this herbicide is now found in the soil, water, air, and even in humans worldwide. Roundup may also remain as a residue on edible crops.

Many studies have found harm to the environment and to health, making it imperative to regulate the use of Roundup and to ensure that its various formulations pose no danger when used in the long-term.

Unfortunately, regulators may only assess the ‘active ingredient’, glyphosate, and ignore the toxicity of the formulants, which can be far more toxic than the active ingredient. This omission is in violation of a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union. There are close ties between the regulators and the industry they are supposed to regulate.

Objectionable practices include ‘revolving doors’ between the regulators and the industry, heavy reliance on unpublished papers produced by the industry while dismissing papers published by independent scientists, and strong covert influence on the regulatory process by industry. Although this paper focuses on the European Union (EU), the situation is much the same in the United States.

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MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute), a publisher of open access scientific journals, published the full paper on a ‘free to read’ basis.

 

 

 

 

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Chief Executive of ASH, a former RCP President & the Directorof the Obesity Health Alliance, call for public health interventions to prevent ill-health in the first place

There are reports of rising ill-health often attributed to the Covid epidemic and the current failure to see, let alone treat, many people with serious illnesses. Many people are unfit to work and hundreds of thousands elders are unable to care for themselves whether living at home or in one of the UK’s 17,079 care homes.

ONS figures show that the rise in long-term sickness is a trend recorded well before the Covid pandemic. Illhealth is an increasingly common reason for economic inactivity; 28% of those dropped out of the labour market in June to August 2022 as 150,000 workers joined the existing 2.5 million in the two months to the end of July.

A Public Health England report, The Burden of Disease in England compared with 22 peer countries, presented data from 2018-2019 showing that before Covid and the escalating NHS problems, health in England alone was already  poor, compared with that in 22 peer countries.

In that report, Public Health England (PHE), a government quango, found that the ‘top 4’ diseases have remained static over time. Alzheimer’s disease, colorectal and pancreatic cancer, and drug use disorders have increased their rank. Cardiovascular disease, cancer, non-communicable respiratory disease and injury dominate the mortality ranking:

“Compared with our peer group (22 peer countries) we rank higher for lower respiratory tract infections, neonatal mortality, oesophageal cancer and aortic aneurysm. Cardiovascular diseases incidence and prevalence in England are in the highest quartile of rates for peer countries. This is largely due to a much higher incidence and prevalence of ischaemic heart disease narrowed heart arteries . . . Amongst conditions amenable to healthcare, England performs relatively poorly for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer and epilepsy.”

Money UK (insurance assessors) lists the top 20 healthiest places in which to live

PHE adds that our Healthcare Access and Quality Index shows that our relative position has remained consistently in the lowest 25% of our peer group and for premature deaths amenable to healthcare, England is improving but remains in the bottom quartile of peer countries.

The pittance spent on prevention must be nurtured, not neglected, or NHS investment will fail to deliver the economic growth that is being promised:

So say Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive, Action on Smoking & Health, Professor Sir Ian Gilmore (right), a former President of the Royal College of Physicians and Chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance UK and Katharine Jenner, Director, Obesity Health Alliance (FT)

They point out that the evidence is clear about how to achieve the greatest impact in reducing disease, disability and premature death: prevent illness in the first place. Investment in treatment is necessary but not sufficient. The Health Foundation has estimated that public health interventions cost three to four times less than that of NHS interventions for each additional year of good health achieved in the population.

(Ed): those advocating prevention will be able to present an even stronger case by liaising with bodies exposing the health impacts of polluted air, water and the use of toxic domestic and agricultural chemicals