Non publication of Chemical Hazards and Identification Risk surveillance group meetings
WHAT DID WE ASK?
I am requesting final minutes of the CHaIRS group after October 2011, to which the FSA provides secretarial support as a member.
Despite assurances that the minutes of these meetings would be published on the FSA website this has failed to materialise, and as a consequence of the lack of proactive dissemination of this material, I am making this request
WHY DID WE ASK THIS?
As the minutes from this group have yielded significant information about the way in which agencies have dealt with the rattlechain issue we wanted an assurance that all future minutes regardless of whether they contained any new useful information were recorded on the FSA website. It appeared as though the minutes were not being put on the website as was stated they would be by Secretary John Caseley in a previous request to them;
“it is intended that all future agendas and minutes of meetings re- CHaIRS will be placed on the website”
WHAT DID THEY KNOW?
“As you correctly state, the last minutes posted on the FSA Website relate to the October 2011 meeting. There has been one subsequent meeting, held 5th December 2011. The minutes of this meeting will be formally agreed at the next meeting of the Group which is scheduled for Monday, 17th September.
These minutes will subsequently be placed on the FSA website.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
As stated in the reply, these minutes were subsequently placed on the FSA website. 5th December 2011. They did not contain any reference to Rattlechain lagoon, despite at this point several birds having been confirmed as having been exposed to and systemically poisoned by white phosphorus.
The frequency of meetings in 2012 appears to have substantially dropped than in previous years, the next meeting having been schedueled for September 17th 2012. Have the chemical risks lessened, or is the group on the way out? Time will tell.