Download Environmental Petition Contact Information: Kris Robinson Name of

Environmental Petition
Contact Information:
Kris Robinson
Name of Group:
Environment Hamilton Biedermann Fire Working Group
Signature of Petitioner:
Title of Petition:
Deficiencies in Pest Control Incident Reporting System
Pest Management Regulatory Agency
Health Canada
Relevant Act: Pest Control Products Act and Pest Control Products Incident Reporting
Regulations
Attachments
Theÿsmeÿer, T., and D. Galbraith. 2007. July 2007 Biedermann Packaging Fire:
Effects on Cootes Paradise Marsh. Internal Report. Royal Botanical Gardens. Hamilton,
Ontario.
Background Information:
On July 26, 2007 at 1:41 am. a fire broke out at the Biedermann Packaging plant, 36
Head Street, Dundas Ontario. Biedermann Packaging is a pesticide manufacturing
plant located next to Spencer Creek and adjacent to a residential neighbourhood.
Douse water from the fire drained into the nearby Spencer Creek with devastating
results to the environment including the death of between 5 and 15 million living
organisms (including large fish) in both Spencer Creek and Cootes Paradise.
Spencer Creek, the largest stream in Hamilton, empties into Cootes Paradise. The
Royal Botanical Gardens describes Cootes Paradise as:
Cootes Paradise Marsh is considered one of the most important
waterfowl staging habitats on the lower Great Lakes and the largest
nursery habitat for fish in the region. The Government of Ontario has
designated Cootes Paradise as a Provincially Significant Class 1
Wetland and an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI). It also is
listed as an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) in the Hamilton
Region.
http://www.rbg.ca/pages_sci_conserv/sci_conserv_nature2.html
According the new Pest Control Products Act (June 28, 2006), registrants and
applicants are required by law to report pesticide incidents as of April, 2007. The Pest
Control Products Incident Reporting Regulations states:
Under the PCP (section 13), registrants, a company in whose name a
pesticide is registered, and applicants for the registration of a pesticide,
are now required to report prescribed information (such as incidents)
about their pesticides.
The Regulations go on to stipulate the time frames for reporting incidents:
The IRR prescribe the information received by registrants and
applicants that they are required to report and the time frames within
which they are to report. …human death; major incidents involving
humans that occur in Canada; and major incidents in the environment
are to be reported within 15 days.
It is noteworthy that “moderate” environmental incidents are to be reported within one
month after one month of accumulation and “minor” environmental incidents are to be
reported within 2 months following a 12 month accumulation. The fire at Biedermann
Packaging Inc. occurred almost 19 months ago.
In a search of the Public Registry, Incident Reports, only 2 registrants reported this
environmental incident:
Home Hardware Stores Ltd., incident report no. 2007-5800
Active ingredients reported: warfarin
Spectrum Brands IP Inc, incident report no. 2007-5823
Active ingredients reported: difethianlone, metaldehyde and chlorophacinone
In both of these reports the incident is categorized as “major”.
On October 31, 2007, The Royal Botanical Gardens released the Working Report: July
2007 Biedermann Packaging Fire: Effects on Cootes Paradise Marsh (attached). The
raw data included in this report came directly from the investigation of the Ontario
Ministry of the Environment. This report identifies 3 active ingredients believed to have
caused the greatest amount of damage.
The water was contaminated with a variety of materials, including
among others Malathion, Carbaryl, and Diazinon. It is suspected that
much of the ecosystem-level damage was caused by Diazinon.
(Executive Summary)
The ingredients malathion, carbaryl and diazinon are not included in the 2 reports
relating to this incident.
The Report goes on to describe the devastation of our local environment:
During its course downstream the contaminated douse water is expected to
have caused the mortality of nearly every invertebrate and small fish in the
flow path. This damage to the ecosystem includes millions of aquatic
invertebrates of most species, as well as millions of fry and fingerling fish
hatched this year. The aquatic invertebrates form the base of the food web,
necessary food for most small fish species and many bird species. (Executive
Summary)
Given the devastation of Spencer Creek and Cootes Paradise it is imperative that the federal
agencies responsible monitor the active ingredients involved in pesticide incidents. According to
the Pest Management Regulatory Agency’s website (Fact Sheet on Reporting Pesticide
Incidents):
The database will be regularly searched for any type of pattern related to a
specific pesticide. If the result of a search indicates that there is a trend, such
as multiple incidents for a particular pesticide or a serious effect, Health
Canada will evaluate the information in conjunction with scientific literature.
The Regulations describe the benefits of the requirement to report incidents:
The Minister of Health’s mandate under the PCPA is to prevent
unacceptable risks to people and the environment from the use of
pesticides. It is important that PMRA has access to timely postregistration information regarding incidents related to pesticides. In
order to ensure that the risks of registered pesticides continue to be
acceptable, PMRA must be aware of, and must evaluate, new
information that could cause their registration to be amended or
cancelled. (emphasis added)
The point of the incident reporting system is to monitor these pesticides for
unacceptable risks.
Petition Questions / Requests:
These questions are directed to Health Canada and the Pest Management Regulatory
Agencies and any other responsible department.
1. Why have the registrants of malathion, carbaryl and diazinon not filed an incident
report? Will the appropriate department determine the responsible registrants
and contact them to request that a report be filed as required by law?
2. In a search of the database, Biedermann Packaging Inc. holds a registration for
the ingredient carbaryl (Registration No. 10711). Again, this ingredient was not
reported as being involved in an incident. Will the appropriate department
ensure that this active ingredient is included in the database as contributing to an
environmental incident?
3. The reporting of pesticide incidents must be enforced if Health Canada is to use
this database as a source of information to determine unacceptable risks and
trends such as a serious effect of a given active ingredient. Will Health Canada
or other responsible departments examine the use and incidents of malathion,
carbaryl and, particularly, diazinon to determine if these active ingredients should
continue to be registered, available and sold in Canada?
The Objectives:
1. As the Incident Reporting system is an important mechanism for the federal
departments involved to evaluate and monitor the registered ingredients,
compliance must be enforced. Will the appropriate federal departments ensure
that the registrants responsible for malathion, carbaryl and diazinon file an
incident report immediately?
2. The three ingredients identified by the authors of the Working Report: July 2007
Biedermann Packaging Fire: Effects on Cootes Paradise Marsh, namely,
malathion, carbaryl and diazinon, need to be re-evaluated in terms of their risks
against their benefits. In our opinion, the risks far outweigh the benefits. Will the
appropriate federal departments undertake a re-evaluation of the abovementioned active ingredients?