RECENTLY, I suggested that if all medical and veterinary products which were
tested on animals had to carry a label saying so, then people who oppose animal
testing would be able to decide whether they wanted to use those products or not
(快猫短视频, 18 March, p 51).
As a result of the support that
suggestion received from readers of 快猫短视频, I asked the
Secretary of State for Health, Alan Milburn, if the government would introduce
legislation to bring in such labelling.
Yvette Cooper, the junior health minister, replied that all medicines for
human and veterinary use must be tested on animals to show that they are safe
before they are given a licence. However, she added that the government was
concerned to see that research on animals was done only when it was necessary to
fulfil statutory obligations. 鈥淭here is no statutory requirement for the labels
to include a statement to this effect, and we have no plans to introduce such a
provision,鈥� she went on to say.
I did not really expect any other reply from the minister. But I think the
government is wrong not to consider such a provision. I believe it is important
to bring home to people who greatly benefit from medicines and vaccines just how
very dependent we all are on animal research.
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BEE-KEEPERS often write to me asking for information about bees foraging in
the vicinity of genetically modified crops. I usually pass the questions on to
agriculture ministers. After a recent question, Baroness Hayman, whose
responsibilities include food safety, tells me that while honeybees may forage
for nectar and pollen several kilometres from a hive, they are 鈥渁ttracted to a
very narrow range of crops subject to genetic modification鈥�. However, the
minister advises me that bee-keepers should contact the Department of the
Environment Transport and the Regions for details and location of any
experimental sites where GM crops are being grown, so they can move their hives
should they so wish.
On a related matter鈥攖hat of labelling honey if it contains material
from GM crops鈥擧ayman says any food containing GM materials must be
labelled in accordance with the European Commission Regulations 258/97 and
1139/98.
I WAS angry when I first heard that the American company Beal Aerospace
Technologies was hoping to use Sombrero Island, 40 miles northwest of the
Caribbean island of Anguilla, as a launch pad for its rockets carrying
telecommunications satellites into orbit.
Threats to key wildlife habitats should surely be the subject of
international discussions and environmental impact reports. So I was agog when
Keith Vaz, the Foreign Office minister, in effect told me it was not the British
government鈥檚 place to interfere in this matter, merely to give technical advice
if the Anguillan government requested it鈥攁s in fact it did regarding the
likely implications of such a launch pad.
Sombrero is an ecological treasure house, providing important roosting sites
for brown boobies, brown noddy terns, bridled terns, sooty terns, frigates and
many more. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the American
organisation BirdLife International lobbied strongly against the Beal
proposal.
The good news is that because of the concerns raised by environmental
activists, Beal Aerospace has abandoned plans to use Sombrero Island and is now
seeking alternative sites in Guyana and at Cape Canaveral, Florida. I commend
the company for its responsiveness.
