| | 21/April/20
| | New academic paper slams EU pesticide risk assessment practices A new peer-reviewed paper authored by a group of experts in law, policy, and toxicology, including GMWatch editor Claire Robinson, has identified systemic failings in Europe’s pesticide risk assessment process. The experts have proposed a comprehensive agenda for far-reaching reform after their paper outlined how these failings could seriously undermine ambitions for sustainable agriculture and a “green recovery” from the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the new paper, published in the European Journal of Risk Regulation, Europe is consistently failing to implement and enforce its own regulations on pesticides. GMWatch New 15-minute film on gene drive (video) An excellent new short film on gene drive has been produced by Save Our Seeds. Experts who are interviewed and who warn about the dangerous ramifications of this extreme form of genetic engineering include gene drive developer Dr Kevin Esvelt, who was the first to identify the ability of CRISPR “gene drive” systems to alter wild populations of organisms. Save Our Seeds Air pollution may be ‘key contributor’ to COVID-19 deaths – study High levels of air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors” to deaths from COVID-19, according to research. The analysis shows that of the coronavirus deaths across 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, 78% of them occurred in just five regions, and these were the most polluted. The research examined levels of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant produced mostly by diesel vehicles, and weather conditions that can prevent dirty air from dispersing away from a city. Many studies have linked NO2 exposure to health damage, and particularly lung disease, which could make people more likely to die if they contract Covid-19. “The results indicate that long-term exposure to this pollutant may be one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the Covid-19 virus in these regions and maybe across the whole world,” said Yaron Ogen, at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany, who conducted the research. “Poisoning our environment means poisoning our own body, and when it experiences chronic respiratory stress its ability to defend itself from infections is limited.” The Guardian DONATE TO GMWATCH __________________________________________________________ Website: http://www.gmwatch.org
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