I have often wondered what would happen if there was an item on the national news that exposed the authorities for operating a secret programme, over a number of years, to spray chemicals from airplanes throughout large swathes of the UK. Can you imagine how the general public would react to discover something that they had been told to dismiss as just a conspiracy theory, was actually shown to be true.
To say that there would be a public outcry, would be a massive understatement and maybe that is why the main stream media has done its best to avoid or discredit the subject. Yet, if it was revealed to be true, serious questions would need to be answered about what chemicals were used and their effect on public health. What would be the long term consequences of involving the public in an outrageous chemical experiment that they never consented to? Politicians would all express their surprise and call for an enquiry to establish who was involved and what chemicals were used. They would promise to leave no stone unturned to get to the truth. They would insist that however this happened, it was not typical of the way government works. It must have been down to a few bad apples who acted beyond their authority. If it was shown that the chemicals sprayed were detrimental to health, then the politicians would promise to use the full force of the law against those conspirators who had caused harm to UK citizens. The problem is that the full force of the law does not actually mean anything in this context. Back in 2007, the European Union established a new regulation called REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals), which has the purpose of protecting human health and the environment from the risks posed by chemicals. It was also intended to enhance the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry, whilst promoting alternative methods for the assessment of hazardous substances that do not involve animal testing. On the face of it, REACH seems to be sensible and the authorities appear to have the public interest at heart. Unfortunately, this is not the case because as well as setting out rules for how chemical substances should be handled, REACH also establishes a set of exemptions to the very rules that are meant to protect us. When you look at the exemptions, you realise that the EU’s intention to protect public health needs to be called into question because it is establishing a framework that allows some people and some organisations to use chemicals irresponsibly. The main REACH exemptions that bother me include the following: (1) Substances do not need to be registered if they are manufactured or imported into the EU at less than 1 tonne per year per manufacturer/ importer. In other words, if you set up a series of manufacturing or import companies, you can easily and legitimately exceed the 1 tonne limit. In fact, it means that in reality, if you are clever in the way that you use such companies, no limit applies. (2) Radioactive substances within the scope of Council Directive 96/29/Euratom. Why this exemption applies is not explained but it is not encouraging. Some people claim that chemtrails have been found to contain barium, which is a radioactive substance that is hazardous to health. (3) The carriage of dangerous substances and dangerous substances in dangerous mixtures by rail, road, inland waterway, sea or air. Of all of the exemptions, this is the one that stands out the most. It says that if substances that are known to be dangerous are being transported (all types are listed) then the regulations do not apply. Wait a minute. Let’s spell that out. REACH is a regulation to protect people and the environment from dangerous chemicals but the regulation does not apply if chemicals that are known to be harmful are moved from one location to another. Maybe this is the case if you are spraying dangerous chemicals from airplanes? (4) Waste as defined in Directive 2006/12/EC. The above directive is focussed on the treatment of waste products that could be harmful to human health or the environment. Why then, if they are known to be potentially dangerous, are such products excluded from the REACH regulation? (5) Substances used in product and process-oriented research and development (PPORD) (Article 9). ‘A substance which is manufactured in or imported into the EU for the purposes of product and process orientated research and development is exempt from certain aspects of Registration for a period of 5 years, providing the manufacturer applies to the European Chemicals Agency for this exemption. Further details of how to do this and what exemptions apply can be found in Article 9 of REACH.’ What this says is that if a substance is part of a research and development project, then it can be exempted for 5 years if approved by the European Chemicals Agency. The above details are bad enough but the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has further exemptions that are equally concerning. The key details that people need to be aware of regarding MOD exemptions are taken from the document ‘The Reach Regulation (A guide to Reach Process and Exemption in the MOD)' and are as follows: (1) The UK MOD is committed to complying with the REACH Regulation, but where it is necessary in the interests of defence, the Secretary of State (SofS) may exempt the MOD or anyone involved in defence-related business from the requirements of specific articles of the REACH regulations. Basically, this says that if the Secretary of State authorises the use of a substance that may be harmful to health, then the MOD does not have to comply with the REACH regulation. (2) The MOD managed exemption will be extended to:
This says that once the Secretary of State has authorised an exemption to the MOD, its scope is automatically extended to include partners, foreign forces and overseas bases. (3) In principle United States (US) military bases in the UK would be covered by the same exemptions and MOD administrative arrangements as UK facilities. This further increases the scope from UK military bases to US military bases within the UK. (4) The defence exemption will be served through an administrative system of certification, issued by the SofS, for generic categories of substance (rather than listing specific substance names, for confidentiality). The enforcement Statutory Instrument provides the means for legal exemption, linking it to the SofS’s certificate. What this does, is to allow the MOD to provide minimal information about the detail of exemptions and crucially, to exempt the MOD from legal responsibility. To quote the report directly “The MOD will share sanitised information with the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) about exemptions, such as the numbers of certificates issued.” (5) A substance will be considered eligible for an exemption certificate if the substance and/or its use are classified as “Official-Sensitive” or above. (MOD Classification Policy is described in Joint Service Procedure (JSP) 440, Part 4, Section 1). In other words, if use of a dangerous substance is a government secret, then it is eligible for exemption and the public will know nothing about any risks that they may be exposed to. (6) MOD will keep certificates internal to MOD/HSE, but will make some statistical information publicly available on an annual basis (e.g. number of certificates issued). This really spells out the situation. The public will be provided with content free statistics but will be denied access to any useful information about possible risks that they may be exposed to. What all of this means is that if the authorities are found to have committed mass poisoning of the UK population through chemical spraying from airplanes, they will literally have a get out of jail free card because they can point to the REACH regulation and its various exemptions to explain their actions, assuage their guilt and thereby escape justice. This is further exacerbated by specific MOD exemptions that are granted by the Secretary of State and which are free of any legal responsibility. It is also worth pointing out that although the UK is supposed to be leaving the EU as a result of Brexit, EU legislation will be transferred to UK law as part of the leaving process. This means that the REACH regulation and its exemptions will continue to apply.
0 Comments
|
CategoriesArchives
January 2018
|