(OTTAWA) The toxic gasoline additive MMT, and the federal government’s failure to ban it under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), expose Canadians to severe health risks, say two renowned scientists, the Sierra Club of Canada and the Council of Canadians.

Dr. Herbert Needleman, an American scientist who was instrumental in the banning of lead as a gasoline additive in the 1970s, and Dr. Donna Mergler, a nervous system disorder specialist from the Université de Québec, told an all-party gathering of 40 MPs and Senators that there is abundant evidence MMT, a manganese-based substance, is a potential neurotoxin, especially harmful to children.

"Children are more vulnerable to most neurotoxins," said Dr. Needleman. "They live and play close to the ground where automobile exhausts settle. During the critical early stages of brain development any noxious influence is likely to produce long-term effects that may announce themselves years later as difficulties in learning, language expression, or behavioural and attentional disturbances."

MMT was banned in Canada until this summer when the Chrétien government, reacting to a threat by MMT manufacturer Ethyl Corporation of America to sue the Canadian government under NAFTA, repealed the ban and paid Ethyl $20 million.

Ethyl Corp. was the manufacturer of the original gasoline additive – lead – a product eventually banned because of its neurotoxicity.

"The history of leaded gasoline holds a very important lesson," said Elizabeth May, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada. "If we want to put manganese in the blood and brains of our children, an excellent delivery mechanism is to add it to gasoline."

"The failure of the Chrétien government to protect Canadians’ health under the North American Free Trade Agreement underscores the fact that NAFTA is fatally flawed," added Jo Dufay of the Council of Canadians. "The 'investor-state' provisions in Chapter 11 only open the door to similar health and environmental threats in the future."

The Council of Canadians, Sierra Club of Canada and Greenpeace Canada have been calling for a public inquiry into the "investor-state" provisions of NAFTA, which led to the federal ban on MMT being lifted.

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