{"id":2373,"date":"2013-06-19T19:36:44","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T19:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/?page_id=2373"},"modified":"2019-01-05T18:18:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T18:18:04","slug":"miscellaneous-req-1-white-phosphorus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/?page_id=2373","title":{"rendered":"Miscellaneous REQ 1- white phosphorus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/white_phosphorus_toxicity_in_the#comment-13045\">White phosphorus toxicity in the environment<\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong>BACKGROUND<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances (ACHS) provided &#8220;expert advice on the science behind hazardous chemicals.&#8221; It was made up of eleven scientists, drawn from both private-sector industries and public-sector non-governmental organisations and a lay member.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">It\u00a0was established in 1991 under Section 140 of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA 90). Section 140(5) of the EPA 90 requires that the ACHS be consulted on any proposal to introduce regulations under Section 140 to control injurious substances or articles. Section 142(3) of the EPA 90 requires that the ACHS be consulted on any proposal to introduce an Order under that Section requiring information about potentially hazardous substances.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">\u00a0In April 2001, the ACHS adopted the additional role of advising <a title=\"UKCSHF\" href=\"http:\/\/www.defra.gov.uk\/chemicals-forum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the UK Chemicals Stakeholder Forum<\/a>. In 2005 the remit of the ACHS was widened to include nanomaterials<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><b><span style=\"font-family: Arial,Arial; font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial,Arial; font-size: medium;\">Terms of Reference <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<p>The ACHS was politically independent, and provided &#8220;objective, impartial advice from a purely scientific perspective.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/archive.defra.gov.uk\/environment\/quality\/chemicals\/achs\/documents\/achs-tor.pdf\">Terms of reference<\/a> (PDF)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/archive.defra.gov.uk\/environment\/quality\/chemicals\/achs\/documents\/achs-members.pdf\">Committee members and code of practice<\/a> (PDF)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee (HSAC) is the successor body to the Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances (ACHS) which was abolished on 22 July 2012, with the coming into force of the Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances (Abolition) Order 2012 (Statutory Instrument No 2012\/1923).<\/p>\n<p><strong>WHAT DID WE ASK AND WHAT DID THEY KNOW?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We asked the following questions\u00a0of the \u00a0ACHS and these were \u00a0<a title=\"response\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whatdotheyknow.com\/request\/43447\/response\/110964\/attach\/2\/RFI%203466.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">responded<\/a>\u00a0to via DEFRA.<\/p>\n<p>1. Could you please provide me with a breakdown of the committee members and a brief biography of which companies they may have worked for.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-size: medium;\">&#8220;A1. Information about the members of the ACHS is published on the ACHS website at http:\/\/www.defra.gov.uk\/environment\/quality\/chemicals\/achs\/members.htm. For information about companies which the members have worked for, please see the sections relating to \u2018declared interests\u2019 in the Annual Reports, which are also available on the ACHS website.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">As the information about members of the ACHS that you have requested is publicly available from the website mentioned above, we are exempt from providing a copy under section 21 of the FOIA.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>2. I would like to ask if the committee has looked at the impact of white phosphorus entering the environment and its toxicity to both animals and human exposure both acute and chronic?<br \/>\nPrimarily the source of such exposure would be military use and chemical industry emmisions and waste tipping.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">&#8220;A2. The ACHS secretary has checked the agendas of all ACHS meetings going back to 2001 and did not find any mention of papers on white phosphorus. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the ACHS has not looked at the impact of white phosphorus entering the environment and its toxicity to animals or humans.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Can the ACHS provide an opinion on the toxicity of exposure of white phosphorus in lagoon sediments from historic waste tipping operations or offer advice on how to deal with such a problem?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">&#8220;A3. We would expect a request to the ACHS for such an opinion to come from the Environment Agency, if they felt it were necessary to raise the matter in order to meet their responsibilities in this area. The Environment Agency are aware of the Terms of Reference of the ACHS and will seek its advice if an issue at the Rattlechain Lagoon, which you mentioned in your request, were judged to fall within its remit.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The membership and purpose of this committee give cause for concern. How can a committee advise government objectively when at least one of its members had links to the Chemical Industries Association- a powerful lobby organistaion for the chemical industry, as well as the European conglomeration <a title=\"CEFIC\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/CEFIC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CEFIC <\/a>based in Brussels? Others have backgrounds to universities involved in ongoing research as well as big business chemical companies funded by Government. Ministers cannot possibly have &#8220;independent, expert and impartial advice, in this area&#8221; from such a committee membership.<\/p>\n<p>Does Government need advice on regulation from those with a vested interest, or should advisory committees be formed of those with health only backgrounds which would be more in the public interest and not that serving the health of business?<\/p>\n<p>We believe that these advisory committees should be free from lobbyist groups entirely- otherwise they have NO impartiality and\u00a0NO integrity.\u00a0 Codes of conduct\u00a0offer little safeguards\u00a0when &#8220;wrong doing&#8221; has to be proven but has little chance of being found. A tweak of wording here, a subtle \u00a0ammendment there- not &#8220;wrong doing&#8221; but not &#8220;independent&#8221; either. It is also concerning that outside consultancies can be set up by members of advisory committees offering &#8220;advice&#8221; of how to circumnavigate the legislation that its chief officers may have helped to &#8220;advise&#8221; on and have helped to massage.<\/p>\n<p>The new line up of the HSAC can be found <a title=\"HSAC\" href=\"http:\/\/www.defra.gov.uk\/hsac\/files\/members1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>White phosphorus toxicity in the environment BACKGROUND The Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances (ACHS) provided &#8220;expert advice on the science behind hazardous chemicals.&#8221; It was made up of eleven scientists, drawn from both private-sector industries and public-sector non-governmental organisations and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/?page_id=2373\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":79,"menu_order":15,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2373"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9881,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2373\/revisions\/9881"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}