“Bruce Lanphear” by SFU – Communications & Marketing is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Dr. Bruce P. Lanphear, MD, MPH, has resigned from the PMRA‘s newly created Scientific Advisory Committee (the SAC).
The SAC was created by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) in 2022 as part of its Transformation Agenda, and was touted recently as acting in an “advisory role” to PMRA.
A link to Dr. Lanphear’s resignation letter is below.
Some key points he makes include:
Restrictive Scope
– The terms of reference were inadequate, and too restrictive – more restrictive than those of the Pest Management Advisory Council, which improperly allows industry representatives.
– He worries that the SAC was providing a false sense of security that PMRA is protecting Canadians.
Obselete Regulatory System
– PMRA is using old assumptions, like “all pesticides are necessary”. Some scientists disagree, and youth believe pesticides should be banned, used as a last resort, or used sparingly.
– PMRA prefers toxicology studies and science that conforms to the methods it currently uses. PMRA does not address biomonitoring or human studies.
– PMRA makes conclusions like “no health effects” without adequate data.
– Substitution of one toxic pesticide with another shows we can’t rely on an
“obsolete regulatory system that protects the pest industry more than it protects Canadians”.
Dr. Lanphear was Co-Chair of the SAC, and an extremely prestigious expert, having published over than 300 scientific original research and commentaries in peer-reviewed journals, including the prestigious, high-impact Science, Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine, British Medical Journal Open, and The Lancet. He was deputy editor to five subject-relevant scientific journals since 2000.
We are very sad to see him go. We think it shows the “Transformation Agenda” has transformed very little at PMRA.
READ:
Resignation Letter Bruce Lanphear
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