London

An agricultural biotechnology company is asking a British court to prevent an environmental group releasing guidelines that would help the public probe pesticide trials.

Friends of the Earth, the London-based environmental group, wants to publish its knowledge on how to gain access to data. But Bayer CropScience of Monheim, Germany, says this would reveal commercially sensitive material to competitors, and is seeking a court injunction to prevent publication.

The guidelines draw on the environmental group's four years of legal struggles with Bayer over glufosinate ammonium, a pesticide used with a transgenic maize developed by the company. The pesticide was cleared for experimental use a decade ago, after the UK government's Pesticides Safety Directorate examined Bayer's data on human toxicity and environmental impact.

When Friends of the Earth first asked the directorate for those data in 2000, Bayer objected on the grounds of commercial sensitivity. The environmental group gained access last May — but could view the information only at the offices of Bayer's lawyers and could not copy or remove the documents.

Now the group wants to publish guidelines on how to access such data in Britain, including an array of procedural options beyond those used in the glufosinate ammonium case.

Last October, Bayer applied for an injunction to stop this, claiming that the information would encourage lawbreaking by providing access to information it wants to be confidential. “It is very easy to access information — people just have to approach us,” says Bayer spokesman Julian Little. “But under the Friends of the Earth guidelines we will lose control of the data.”

Friends of the Earth lawyer Phil Michaels says that the law will continue to protect commercially sensitive content, such as details of the active ingredient in the pesticide. “This is an absurd situation,” he says. “The information is already available to the public. We just want to tell people how to access it.”

Neither side will discuss what the guidelines actually say, until the court hears the case, which Michaels says could happen by June.