Tag Archives: Scottish Environment Protection Agency
‘Cover-up’ claim over ban on fish farm pesticide
The Scottish Government put pressure on its environmental watchdog to drop a plan to ban a toxic pesticide in 2018 so as not to upset the fish farming industry. Emails released by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) reveal that senior government officials intervened directly to delete any mention of the proposed 2018 ban from a policy briefing for the environment minister, Roseanna Cunningham, following a complaint from the industry. The pesticide, known as emamectin and marketed as Slice, is widely used by fish farmers to kill the lice that plague caged salmon. But new scientific evidence suggests it is also causing widespread damage to wildlife in Scotland’s sea lochs. click here to read the story 09:10
Scottish government accused of colluding with US drug giant over fish farm pesticides scandal
The Scottish Government allowed a US drug company to secretly rubbish a scientific study blaming one of its pesticides for killing wildlife in Scottish sea lochs. The Sunday Herald has uncovered that the £76 billion New Jersey multinational, Merck, hired reviewers to criticise evidence in a scientific study that the company’s fish farm chemical was causing widespread environmental damage. The scientists behind the study and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) privately protested about Merck’s involvement. But they were overruled by government and salmon industry officials who insisted that the company’s role should be kept secret. Merck’s behind-the-scenes influence has been exposed by more than 70 megabytes of internal documents released by the Crown Estate under freedom of information law. They also show that government and industry agreed not to issue a press release on the study. click here to read the story 13:23
