- SEPA's proposed chemical ban (along with Scotland's lobsters) is Sliced to death
Download press release in full with Notes to Editors online here
Documents disclosed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) via Freedom of Information (FOI) expose yet more damning details of how the Scottish Government intervened at the behest of the salmon farming industry to stave off a ban on the use of the toxic chemical Slice (Emamectin benzoate) [1].
The documents disclosed by SEPA on 9 June reveal that the Scottish Government discussed "serious concerns" raised by the Scottish Salmon Producers Organisation (SSPO) in an "urgent conversation" with SEPA's Chief Executive Terry A'Hearn the night before the publication of a proposed press statement by SEPA issuing a ban on the use of Slice (Emamectin benzoate) by 2018.
Mark Ruskell MSP, environment spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, told The Sunday Herald: “The salmon farming industry appears to have used its influence at the heart of government to suppress independent scrutiny. There is an urgent need for Parliament to run an inquiry into salmon farming and the growing failure to regulate an industry which has been given free reign by ministers to expand way beyond the limits of the environment.”
Scottish Labour's environment spokesperson, Claudia Beamish MSP, described the disclosures as “deeply concerning”.
Read more via today's Sunday Herald: "Scottish government accused of intervening to block ban on toxic pesticide"
[Download document #45 as a PDF online here]
The overnight u-turn by SEPA's Chief Executive in August 2016 not to ban Slice or issue a press statement - described by one Scottish Government employee as a "subsequent reflection" following "discussions last night" - runs counter to advice received by his own SEPA colleagues and raises further question marks over the credibility of Scotland's environmental watchdog.
[Download document #45 as a PDF online here]
"The late night intervention reeks of government by intimidation and smacks of a dystopian dictatorship," said Don Staniford, Director of the Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture. "That the office of the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment lobbied so strongly to protect the salmon farming industry rather than the environment unmasks the Scottish Government as a proxy for industry. Under this Government SEPA's powers have corroded away along with the chemically-embalmed lobsters littering the seabed surrounding Scotland's toxic salmon farms. The scientific evidence is so damning that it demands an immediate ban on the use of Emamectin benzoate. Merck's $1 million study due by February 2019 has bought the salmon farming industry time as well as revealed SEPA's price for betraying the marine environment. Shame on SEPA and shame on the Scottish Government."
SEPA's Dr. Hazel Macleod wrote in an email in October 2015: "We are duty bound to make a decision based on the impact on the environment and not the consequences for industry......As naive as this may sound, I would have hoped that we would be able to reach a conclusion based on our remit and present this to SG [Scottish Government] at which point they can choose to overrule our decision based on the impact on the sector etc."
"If SEPA proposed to seek to stop the use and release of Slice, we may be subject to pressure from either the manufacturer, the industry or both to either delay or adopt another approach," warned an internal SEPA briefing paper (undated but certainly circulated before August 2016). "It may however be argued that the loss of crustacean diversity is an acceptable cost given the benefits arising from the farming of salmon. This is not an argument that should be accepted or endorsed by SEPA as that would essentially represent a 'political' decision and SEPA should not find itself in a place where we are judging between the benefits of the sector and widespread far field effects on an entire phylum of the benthos."
"The matter needs to be considered as a matter of priority as the evidence casts some doubt that SEPA's regulatory approach remains sufficient to prevent environmental harm occurring in the marine environment with possible future consequences for Scotland's crustacean shellfish sector if action is not taken," stated an internal SEPA briefing dated February 2016. "There are reputational risks if we do not act on research findings indicating our regulatory regime is not adequate to provide full protection of the environment. There are also reputational risks in removing a medicine previously relied upon by one of Scotland's most important industries."
See Note [1] for more details and download all the documents online here
Information obtained via FOI from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) also reveal that a $1 million environmental impact study commissioned by chemical giant Merck is scheduled for completion in February 2019 thus buying the salmon farming industry time to find new chemical treatments [2].
The prospect of an end to the salmon farming industry's toxic war on sea lice is sadly remote. "As we know, if we want to move this industry towards a more sustainable production model, it'll take time to "ween" them off chemicals (and to prevent access to the more toxic, persistent bio accumulative compounds presently being researched)," wrote SEPA's Andy Rosie in an internal email in August 2016.
A briefing for the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform (Roseanna Cunningham) dated August 2016 stated: "A new in-feed treatment is being trialled elsewhere, although SEPA does have concerns about its impact and is wary of allowing a trial in Scotland".
"Additionally there are a number of other chemicals in development at various stages (including imminent field trials that SEPA input in to," stated an internal SEPA briefing paper in September 2015.
Earlier this month (11 June 2017), GAAIA filed a FOI request with the VMD for details of any new sea lice chemicals for use in salmon farming in Scotland - including a neonicotinoid-based in-feed sea louse treatment; a “ground-breaking” sea lice treatment due to be launched by Benchmark in the coming months and Elanco's lufenuron-based treatment Imvixa [3].
GAAIA also filed a FOI request (13 June 2017) with SEPA for further details on events in August 2016 surrounding the Chief Executive's apparent unilateral decision not to issue a press statement banning Slice [4].
Download press release in full with Notes to Editors online here
Read more background via:
Sunday Herald: "Scottish government accused of intervening to block ban on toxic pesticide"
Sunday Herald: "Scottish government accused of colluding with drug giant over pesticides scandal"
Sunday Herald: "Toxic pesticide ban scrapped after fish farm industry pressure"
Press Release: "Scottish Salmon Overdoses on Toxic Chemical"
Daily Mail: "The toxic chemicals in farmed salmon straight from the loch"
"Crackdown on fish farm pesticides after Sunday Herald investigation"
Press Release: "Toxic Toilets: Salmon Farms Pollute Scotland's Lochs"
Front Page of Sunday Herald: "Revealed: Scandal of 45 Lochs Trashed by Pollution"
The Sunday Times: "Salmon industry toxins soar by 1000 per cent"
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