BRITAIN and the rest of Europe will be open to a flood of substandard medicines with severe side effects if EU-US trade deal TTIP is signed, general union GMB said yesterday.

The warning comes as the European Parliament prepares to vote on a report into the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on June 10.

However, MEPs’ votes are not binding.

TTIP involves “downward harmonisation of standards” in regulations, including deregulating chemicals currently banned in the European Union but not in the US.

“We elect MEPs to protect us, not to open up the EU market to chemicals that are banned here,” said GMB national health and safety officer John McClean.

Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can interfere with the body’s hormone system and can cause cancerous tumours, birth defects, infertility, male reproductive dysfunctions, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and learning and development disorders, GMB said.

They include substances used in flame retardants, food can linings and some plastics.

Mr McClean said that the chemicals were found in many other household and industrial products including drugs, pesticides, and industrial by-products and pollutants.

A phrase in the report to the EU rejecting the weakening of standards has been removed.

“We want this wording restored,” Mr McClean said.

If TTIP is signed, EU countries could be subjected to enforced privatisation of public services and fines by an offshore court if a government enacts legislation which corporations say affects their profits.