Syngenta, Bayer and Co.: Pesticide manufacturers have been hiding controversial research results for years

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Four pesticide manufacturers, including the former Basel-based agrochemical group Syngenta and Bayer, have withheld scientific studies for years — despite disclosure requirements. This has emerged from research by a research collective with the cooperation of “SRF Investigativ”. Some studies are more than 15 years old. However, the results are only now being announced.

Pesticides such as abamectin are often very toxic, but they have been approved for decades in both Switzerland and the EU – possibly wrongly so?

Studies from 2005 and 2007

Abamectin – known to farmers as “Vertimec Gold” – is highly toxic and should only be used in an emergency. Only recently has the EU further restricted its use. Reason: In tests on rats, their genitals develop more slowly.

But these findings are not new. Syngenta knew about it more than 15 years ago, writes SRF. The studies date from 2005 and 2007, but have not been officially submitted.

So-called DNT studies are carried out for pesticides such as abamectin. The toxic pesticides are tested on rodents to investigate possible effects on the human organism. Such studies are extremely complex and equally expensive.

A quarter of DNT investigations are not submitted

Such results should actually be reported to the authorities. But that did not happen in a quarter of the cases in Europe. This also affects Switzerland, which is based on the EU registry office. In total, the DNT studies for nine active substances were not submitted. In seven of these, the results showed unwanted side effects. “That could put us, as consumers, at risk,” said Cristina Rudén, a professor of environmental toxicology in Stockholm, Sweden.

What is particularly frightening is that the industry’s largest manufacturers, Syngenta, Bayer, and the Japanese companies IKS and Nissan Chemical Corporation, are involved.

The new findings raise suspicions that the pesticide manufacturers only submit studies that come to a positive result – a highly questionable practice. If a company prepares a study, it must also be submitted. “Especially if they showed potentially harmful effects,” says lawyer Björnstjern Baade of Freie Universität Berlin.

Syngenta and Co. deny everything

The manufacturers are not aware of any guilt: “There are no unsubmitted DNT studies from Syngenta in the EU or Switzerland,” Syngenta tells SRF. The studies would only have been conducted for approval in the US market. In the EU they were submitted later due to tightening of legislation.

Bayer writes on request: “We always submitted the necessary investigations required by regulations at the time.” The studies that were not submitted would not have influenced the authorities’ risk assessment.

Source:Blick