Good science is good science, no matter the source
Before any new pesticide comes to market it goes through years of testing to make sure it is both safe and effective. Most of this research is done by companies trying to bring new products to market. The question is often asked about whether companies themselves should be doing this research.
Here’s the simple truth: good science is good science, no matter the source. High quality data in any industry need to meet certain standards to be considered usable. Data generated by companies are often misconstrued as untrustworthy but whether data are generated by governments, academics or individual companies it must meet the same strict scientific standards in order to be accepted by government regulators. And regulators use what is called a weight of evidence approach to making decisions meaning it’s not a single study that dictates a decision but rather an evaluation of all of the available science.
There’s a difference between the type of information available for new innovations and those that have been on the market for some time. New products or innovations typically only have industry data to support them, while existing products may have additional data from academia or other sources. The reason that new products are typically only supported by industry data is that the research to bring a new innovation to market is expensive and resource intensive.
It only makes sense that the companies that will end up selling the products bear the brunt of the research costs to prove that any risks associated with the product are acceptable, not the public. Think about crash testing in the automotive industry. The companies that develop the cars also put the cars through rigorous safety testing to ensure the vehicles are safe before they sell them to consumers.
Companies that conduct safety testing on pesticides are required to comply with many domestic and international standards and requirements to ensure the data they produce are objective and high quality. All research must be conducted in compliance with good laboratory practices, a set of internationally-agreed upon requirements that ensures the uniformity, reproducibility and integrity of the data generated. The high quality data generated are then submitted to Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), which is responsible for ensuring all pesticides registered for use in Canada are safe, for review.
The PMRA employs more than 300 scientists to review all the raw data provided by companies, and any other available information, to generate its own scientific conclusions about the safety of the products. They cross-check the data against other research findings, including epidemiology studies published in peer-reviewed literature, when the information is available. They also consult with other international organizations that have conducted scientific reviews of the same product.
This process has built-in transparency measures to give the public the opportunity to comment on proposed pesticide evaluation decisions. The raw data are also available to the public under certain conditions that ensure its confidential nature remains protected from corporate theft. The decisions to register a pesticide and to keep the pesticide on the market are only made if the PMRA concludes that there is enough scientific evidence to show that the product does not pose a risk to human health or the environment and that it serves a useful purpose.
A comparison to the pharmaceutical industry may be useful when thinking about data. Recall the early days of the pandemic when vaccine trials were underway. The public followed along with anticipation as companies tested their products through those same rigorous practices outlined above. There were a number of companies working on different vaccines and not all of them succeeded. The data generated were then evaluated to ensure that the vaccines that made it into the arms of the Canadian public worked as they should.
CropLife Canada is proud of the strong commitment of our members to produce high-quality data that support bringing safe and effective pest control products to market to help farmers in their quest to sustainably feed Canadians and the world, and to provide domestic users the tools they need to protect urban green spaces, fend off unwanted pests and protect critical infrastructure.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased public awareness of scientific processes and I hope it has increased trust in science as well. In this age of misinformation, it’s hard to know who to trust. When it comes to scientific data, it’s not about who they come from – it’s about how they were generated.
For more information:
PMRAs guidance for developing a database for conventional pest control products
Where you can find regulatory data
Terri Stewart,
Executive Director, Chemistry
CropLife Canada