politics for the 99%

Published on The Guardian, by Arthur Neslen in Brussels, May 22, 2015: US trade officials pushed EU to shelve action on endocrine-disrupting chemicals linked to cancer and male infertility to facilitate TTIP free trade deal … (my comment: America wants that we pay ourselves our destruction – Heidi).

EU moves to regulate hormone-damaging chemicals linked to cancer and male infertility were shelved following pressure from US trade officials over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership TTIP free trade deal, newly released documents show.

Draft EU criteria could have banned 31 pesticides containing endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). But these were dumped amid fears of a trade backlash stoked by an aggressive US lobby push, access to information documents obtained by Pesticides Action Network (PAN) Europe show … //

… The result was that legislation planned for 2014 was kicked back until at least 2016, despite estimated health costs of €150bn per year in Europe from endocrine-related illnesses such as IQ loss, obesity and cryptorchidism – a condition affecting the genitals of baby boys.

A month before the meeting, AmCham had warned the EU of “wide-reaching implications” if the draft criteria were approved. The trade body wanted an EU impact study to set looser thresholds for acceptable exposure to endocrines, based on a substance’s potency.

“We are worried to see that this decision, which is the source of many scientific debates, might be taken on political grounds, without first assessing what its impacts will be on the European market,” the chair of AmCham’s environment committee wrote in a letter to the commission.

These could be “dramatic” the letter said.

In a high-level internal note sent to the health commissioner, Tonio Borg, shortly afterwards, his departmental director-general warned that the EU’s endocrines policy “will have substantial impacts for the economy, agriculture and trade” … //

… (full text).

Related Links:

• Stop TTIP.org;
• European Citizens’ Initiative.eu/Public Welcome ECI;
• Corporate Europe Observatory.org;
• La Quatrature du Net: /fr; /en;
• TAFTA on Public Citizen.org;

on en.wikipedia:

• European Citizens’ Initiative ECI was introduced with the Treaty of Lisbon, aimed at increasing direct democracy in the European Union;
• Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement TAFTA is a proposal to create a trans-atlantic free-trade area; /External Links;
• Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is a free trade agreement which is currently at negotiation level, between Canada and the European Union; /See also;
• Trade in Services Agreement TISA is a proposed international trade treaty between 24 Parties, including the European Union and the United States;
• Free trade is a policy in international markets in which governments do not restrict imports or exports; /See also;
• European Free Trade Association EFTA is a free trade organisation between four European countries (Island, Norway, Lichtenstein, Switzerland) /EFTA/See also
  … that operates in parallel with – and is linked to – the European Union EU; EU/See also; EU/External Links;

Other Links:

Mario Draghi’s Slippery Downward Slope – Ilargi, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, May 25, 2015;

Taking Responsibility for Drone Killings, on Dissident Voice, by Brian Terrell, May 25, 2015;

Cyber-Attack Warning: Could Hackers Bring Down a Plane? on Spiegel Online International, by Marcel Rosenbach and Gerald Traufetter, May 22, 2015: For years, hackers have been warning that passenger jets are vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Airlines and plane manufacturers have largely ignored the risks, but recent events are leading German authorities and pilots to take the threats extremely seriously;

70 Jahre lang belogen, 25.23 min, von Mike Mareen am 1. April 2014 hochgeladen.