The federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency is studying circumstances surrounding a recent court case in Alberta, in which a pesticide company was found liable for carrying inadequate warnings on its label.
“We have started an investigation on that case,” said Pierre Beauchamp, acting director of efficacy and sustainability assessment for Health Canada, the department that oversees the PMRA.
“We have to go back in our records and find out what happened.”
The Alberta Court of Appeal recently upheld an August 2004 lower court decision in which Cyanamid Crop Protection, a division of Wyeth-Ayerst Canada Inc., was found liable for crop damage suffered by Alberta farmer Dale Moran in 1998.
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Moran experienced significant yield losses on wheat planted on ground that had been treated with the herbicide Pursuit the previous year.
The court found the company negligent in failing to adequately warn users on its label about residue problems associated with Pursuit and awarded Moran $27,745.25 in damages, a decision appealed by Wyeth-Ayerst but upheld by the provincial court of appeal Oct. 14.
Beauchamp said companies are required to provide a proposed label and include detailed scientific data. The label, considered to be a legally binding document, is approved by the PMRA.
In the August 2004 judgment, the court found that the original label on Pursuit referred to the possibility of residual soils activity “in the year following application,” but those words were later deleted.
According to the judgment, a Cyan-amid official testified at trial that the company made the change in the expectation that farmers would as a result be less concerned about residue.
Beauchamp said while he’s not familiar with details of the Moran case, in general companies are allowed to make minor changes to their labels by notifying the agency. However significant changes require a formal review.
