Chopra calls to stop federal bills
Laura Walz, Editor
The Powell River Peak, 8 June 2005
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14664275&BRD=1998&PAG=461&dept_id=221589&rfi=6

Microbiologist says accepting certification results from other countries risks Canada's food safety

[image caption: FOOD SAFETY: Dr. Shiv Chopra, a Health Canada whistle-blower, congratulated Powell River for becoming a genetically engineered crop free zone on a visit last weekend.]

People should make Canada's government take stronger measures to protect food safety, according to a former Health Canada scientist.

Dr. Shiv Chopra, who was a microbiologist and drug evaluator in the federal veterinary drugs bureau of the Health Protection Branch of Health Canada, stopped in Powell River last weekend during a tour of the west.

Chopra has a long history of calling the government to account over food protection issues. He became well known in the 1990s when he and fellow scientist Margaret Haydon publicly opposed the approval of recombinant [ie genetically engineered] bovine growth hormone.

In 2003, Chopra, Haydon and Gerard Lambert wrote an internal memo to the minister of health suggesting that bans on feeding animal-based products to cows be tightened to exclude all remaining products, such as those containing blood and gelatin, because of the risk of mad cow disease. Chopra was suspended for two weeks and fined three months' pay.

Chopra, Haydon and Gerard Lambert were fired in the summer of 2004. The three scientists had blown the whistle on conflicts of interest in Health Canada's drug approval process.

Chopra made two public appearances in Powell River June 5. Over 100 people came to the Open Air Market to hear him speak. He also spoke later in the afternoon at the Patricia Theatre.

Chopra told The Peak during an interview that while genetically modified food is "the latest beast on the block," there are other serious issues about food safety.

Those issues include hormones, antibiotics and rendered material going into animal feed. "They all have to be stopped," Chopra said. "They must all be taken out of food."

Hormones initiate and promote cancer in animals, Chopra said. "Even a single molecule of a cancer-causing chemical attached to a sensitive cell in the body can start cancer. Hormones also cause reproductive disorders in people and it's all happening through the food supply."

Widespread use of antibiotics in animals to prevent disease causes bacteria to become drug-resistant, he said. "People are dying because we have nothing left to treat them with. The bugs have become resistant." Antibiotics have been in the food supply system for more than 30 years, he said, but they are banned in Europe.

If these practices were banned in Canada, Chopra said, it would create a level playing field. "Food would automatically become organic," he said. "If we did this, it would generate jobs, create healthy food and a large export market."

Organic farmers shouldn't have to fight for the changes, Chopra added. "It's the public that should demand these things be taken out."

Chopra also raised an alarm about two pending federal bills, Bill C-27, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Enforcement Act, and Bill C-28, An Act to Amend the Food and Drugs Act. Bill C-27 would allow the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to accept testing and certification results from other countries. It would harmonize food inspection, food safety and environmental laws to conform with American regulations.

The United States permits irradiation of meat, which is not allowed in Canada, and has failed to meet World Health Organization guidelines for preventing mad cow disease.

Bill C-28 would allow Health Canada to give temporary approvals to drugs without the data to back up the approvals. Chopra called that a "dangerous power."

Chopra said both bills "must be stopped. The public must apply pressure and these authorities should not be given."

Chopra said if Canada takes the lead, the United States will come "knocking on our door. They will want our healthy food."