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Pesticide Action
Network Updates Service (PANUPS)
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Canadian Government Sued
for Banning Lindane
January 3, 2002
In November 2001, a major U.S.-based chemical producer filed a US$100
million lawsuit against the Canadian government for banning use of the
pesticide lindane on canola crops. Crompton Corp. is suing Canada under
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trilateral free trade
agreement signed in 1992 between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Corporations have challenged national environmental and health bans of
suspected toxins using NAFTA several times using the agreement’s
controversial Chapter 11. The chapter grants private investors and corporations
the right to sue NAFTA governments for damages if they feel that their
investments have been hurt by national laws or regulations. In the precedent-setting
case where the Canadian government was sued for banning the toxic gasoline
additive MMT, the government settled the dispute by agreeing to repeal
the ban, issue a public apology to the U.S.-based producer Ethyl Corp.
and pay the company damages of US$13 million.
Although lindane is banned for
use on canola crops in the U.S., the Canadian government's move to do
the same prompted the suit by Crompton Corp. The company claims that the
Canadian government broke an earlier agreement it made with the Pest Management
Regulatory Agency (PMRA), a Canadian government agency that oversees pesticide
registration. Crompton Corp. had agreed to stop making lindane products
at the end of 1999 pending a full PMRA review of the pesticide’s
safety, to be completed by the end of 2000. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is currently completing its own review and reregistration
of lindane for a number of other uses in the United States.
In a push for ‘harmonization’
of regulations, Crompton Corp. agreed that it would not request the reinstatement
of lindane in Canada if both the PMRA and the EPA found it unsafe to use
on canola. However, the agreement also stipulated that if either government
agency deemed lindane safe for use on canola, then it would be reregistered
in Canada.
Although PMRA studies are not complete,
the Canadian government banned lindane for use on canola as of July 1,
2001. While Crompton Corp. has protested, the Canadian government maintains
that it has the fundamental right to ban the pesticide.
Under NAFTA, Crompton Corp. and
the Canadian government have 90 days to reach a compromise after which,
if no solution has been agreed upon, Crompton can ask for a binding arbitration
panel that will decide whether or not Canada has to pay damages.
Many speculate that other trade
pressures, not health and environmental concerns, were behind Canada’s
decision. American canola growers, barred from using lindane, have complained
that they are at a competitive disadvantage compared to Canadian growers
since lindane substitute products are considerably more expensive.
One of Pesticide Action Network
International’s Dirty Dozen pesticides, lindane is persistent in
the environment, highly toxic, a suspected endocrine disrupter and has
been linked to breast cancer. Documented health effects of exposure to
lindane include dizziness, seizures, nervous system damage, immune system
damage and birth defects. It has been found in breast milk and blood samples
throughout the world, and is the persistent chemical found most often
in the arctic environment.
A draft North American Regional Action Plan has been developed for lindane
under the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the environmental
side agreement to NAFTA. The plan calls for significant reduction of lindane
use in the region. Lindane is currently being phased out in Europe after
the European Union banned it for all agricultural and horticultural uses
in 2000.
Crompton Corp. produces and markets chemicals globally with annual sales
of approximately US$3 billion. The company is the major producer of lindane
products in Canada. Main lindane producers in the U.S. include Aventis
CropScience and Syngenta.
Sources: The Globe and Mail December 10, 2001; Public Citizen
"NAFTA Chapter 11 Investor-to-State Cases: Bankrupting Democracy"
September 2001, available at http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7076;
PANUPs October 24, 2000; http://www.cromptoncorp.com;
Global Pesticide Campaigner, Fall 2000.
Contact: PANNA.
PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and reporting
on pesticide issues that don't always get coverage by the mainstream media.
It's produced by Pesticide Action Network North America, a non-profit
and non-governmental organization working to advance sustainable alternatives
to pesticides worldwide.
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