CIA slams Friends of the Earth report
22 Aug 2000
A Friends of the Earth report claiming that the Human Genome Project will lay the chemical industry open to massive litigation has been dismissed as `contrived and disappointing' by the Chemical Industries Association.
The FoE report, `Crisis in Chemicals', argued that knowledge of the genome will allow people with allergies to certain chemicals to take legal action against the companies that produce those substances.
Among the hoped-for outcomes of the Human Genome Project is an understanding of how, and why, some people are far more sensitive to certain chemicals than others. The FoE report claims that people whose genomes show sensitivity to a particular chemical occurring in their environment, whether through their workplace, from factory pollution or through foods or other products, will be able to sue the companies that produce them for damages. Under UK law, says report author Michael Warhurst, `the person claiming injury would not have to prove absolutely that the chemical plant he lives next door to or the product he is using has caused damage to him, merely that on the balance of probabilities it has.'
The CIA dismisses the report as crude scaremongering, however. `The chemicals industry is extremely highly regulated - and rightly so,' comments CIA president Elliot Finer. `We are well aware that a small number of people face real problems. Some, for example, are sensitive to natural gas when it is burnt in cookers. There can, however, be no question of society ceasing to use gas cookers.'
The CIA believes that chemicals sensitivity should be handled by `minimising the exposure of those who are sensitive, but not at the risk of the benefits enjoyed by the rest of society.'
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