Carney’s pesticide policy could put economy ahead of your health

Althia Raj/Toronto Star: Buried in two omnibus financial bills are provisions that overhaul the Pest Control Products Act. They change the health minister’s mandate to include economic considerations — not just risks to human health and the environment; they grant cabinet the power to overrule a minister who refuses to approve a pesticide or who determines that a pesticide currently in use is too dangerous for the environment, and they prevent that minister from launching a review on the harmful effects of that pesticide for up to six years. The proposed changes also eliminate legislated reviews of pesticides, raise the bar to launch formal re-evaluations, increasing the possibility that a product could be on the market for decades without any re-evaluation of its health and environmental risks…