Category Archives: Safe Public Places

Toxic exposure against our will

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Roundup, the herbicide that contains glyphosate, has gotten a lot of international press in the past week.  And none of it is good news for us living beings who are exposed to Roundup in our food and in the environment. The use of a chemical known to bring about serious harm, especially by the government and industry, is a form of chemical trespass; it is toxic exposure against our will.

A peer-reviewed study conducted by researchers at MIT concluded that Roundup has a “negative impact on the body [that] is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.”

Specifically, Roundup has been linked to endocrine disruption and cell death, Parkinson’s, infertility and a variety of cancers.

Beyond Toxics conducted a 2013 study of what herbicides were purchased and applied on public and private lands all over this state. During a press conference at the State Capitol in March, we revealed our findings showing that Oregon government takes $2.5 million of State Lottery funds every biennium and gives the money away in “weed grants” for the purchase and application of toxics pesticides.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, was the most commonly used product. Picloram, a known ground water pollutant and carcinogen, was the second most frequently applied herbicide.

These publically funded projects have focused exclusively on applying harsh chemicals.  This is no way for our state government to support public health! And it’s arrogant to spend public dollars on chemicals that are known to be toxic to our reproductive system.

Beyond Toxics has asked the Department of Agriculture to require the development of an integrated pest management plan (IPM) before doling out public funds for weed sprays. HB 3364, legislation that passed in the Oregon House and is on its way to the Senate, will require IPM as the science-based standard for pest management.

In discussions with folks around the state of Oregon about their home gardens, I’ve often heard people say that they “just spray a little Roundup, because it is barely harmful.”   Be careful – all ‘cides’ – including herbicides and insecticides – are designed to kill living things by disrupting normal cell function. Roundup causes DNA damage.

Just because any of us can buy Roundup off the shelves in any nearby garden and hardware store doesn’t mean that the government knows it is safe.  A case in point, the EPA finally just confirmed, after decades of denial in the face of overwhelming evidence, that formaldehyde and styrene are carcinogens. Formaldehyde and styrene are common in household products (think Styrofoam cups).

There is a critical connection between our health and what’s in our environment and consumer products.  In Oregon, let’s work together to prevent chemical trespass. As an easy first step, please sign our Safe Public Places endorsement petition.

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director
Beyond Toxics

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Doctors Say Beyond Toxics’ Proposal is a “step in the right direction”

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I want to share an important new statement signed by 15 of our local pediatricians supporting HB 3364, Beyond Toxics’ bill to protect kids, elders, and our fragile ecosystem from pesticides!

In a letter to the legislature dated 3/18, the PeaceHealth doctors wrote:

“We are pediatricians who …vigorously support the passage of this bill and think it is past time that the state take a proactive stance in protecting the public and in particular our children from the known toxic effect of exposure to pesticides…”

Good on our local pediatricians! Let’s applaud their strong and vocal stance to protect children!

The Lane County Medical Society has also taken a clear “support” position on HB 3364 as well. Doctors know that pesticides are, by their nature, designed to cause death to living things. The risk of harming children is very well documented. Here are some examples:

Let’s get behind our doctors and support their knowledge and advocacy on behalf of children’s health!

Please take just a minute to commend doctors for speaking up to help pass HB 3364 by sending a letter to the editor of your local paper. The public needs to hear more about this important issue so that support for sensible, science-based legislation to protect children from pesticides on public lands can pass this year! You, as a member/follower of Beyond Toxics, can make such an important impact by sharing your beliefs and values. I truly thank you for stepping up and speaking out!

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director
Beyond Toxics

 

City tries to find pesticide substitute Beekeepers and environmentalists say the use of one treatment may kill bees

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Photo by Bev Veals, 2012

Beyond Toxics initiated the Friends of Healthy Bees Campaign in 2012 in partnership with local bee keepers.We are excited about the initial results of this collaborative effort! Beyond Toxics and our bee keeping partners, provided information to the City of Eugene about how the use of pesticides are harming our pollinators and presenting risks to children and families in parks. Below you can read more about the City’s plan to stop using neonicotinoids and pursue efforts to support pesticide-free parks!

See the Consumer Pesticide Products with Neonics Sold in The U.S. (to save honey bees, do not use in your garden!) | “Neonicotinoid” defined

City tries to find pesticide substitute Beekeepers and environmentalists say the use of one treatment may kill bees
BY EDWARD RUSSO, Eugene Register-Guard (March 18, 2013)

Eugene city government will try to cut the use of a pesticide suspected of killing honeybees.

At the request of bee­keepers and environmentalists, the city will seek to find an alternative to the neonicoti­noid pesticide it has used to kill bugs on downtown flowers. City officials also have asked the contracted manager of municipally owned Laurelwood Golf Course to find a substitute for the pesticide.

Beekeepers and the Eugene-­based environmental group Beyond Toxics say European studies show that the pesticide kills honeybees, and they have taken their concerns to city officials, including the City Council.

Eugene beekeeper Philip Smith said bees that alight on flowers treated with neo­nicotinoids don’t die right away.

“It doesn’t kill on contact,” he said. “But it accumulates and after not too many trips, that’s it for the bee.”

The city uses a neo­nicotinoid, Imidacloprid 2F, to kill aphids and thrips on downtown flowers.

City Facilities Director Jeff Perry, who oversees the division that maintains the downtown flowers, said his department is looking for alternatives to the pesticide.

“What we have found is that the baskets require extra attention to maintain and generally require more insecticides, such as Imidacloprid,” he said. “It is challenging, but we are looking for effective alternative solutions.”

The management firm at Laurelwood Golf Course early last year used the pesticide to control grass-killing grubs, said Kevin Finney, the city’s parks operations manager. But the firm said it had no plans to use the pesticide this year, he said.

Smith and Beyond Toxics Executive Director Lisa Arkin said the city’s interest in finding alternatives to the pesticides is a right step.

But both also said the city should ban use of the pesticide on its properties.

A study released in January by the European Food Safety Commission identified health risk for bees from three neonicotinoid insecticides, Clothianidin, Imidacloprid and Thiamethoxam.

Several garden supply stores in the United Kingdom have voluntarily stopped selling the pesticides, Smith said.

Organic alternatives to the pesticides exist, he said, including insecticidal soaps made with Neem oil.

Beekeepers and Beyond Toxics are asking local stores to stop carrying neonicotinoid pesticides. “We are working to educate local garden supply stores about the harm of neonicotinoids,” Arkin said.

“We would like them to at least label these products as harmful to bees so people can at least make an informed choice.”

The city’s response to the concerns were mentioned by Finney on Wednesday at a council meeting that reviewed the city’s “integrated pest management” policy.

The policy guides the city’s parks and open spaces and facilities divisions in controlling weeds and pests on city property.

Under the 30-year-old policy, the city is supposed to try to control troublesome plants and pests without herbicides or insecticides. If those methods don’t work, low-toxicity pesticides are to be used.

“The goal of the integrated pest management policy is not to eliminate the use of pesticides,” Finney said.

“It’s to use the least toxic approach. It requires you to go through a process where you will try the most cost effective, least toxic methods first.”

The city already has established no-pesticide zones around certain park features, including playgrounds, picnic areas, dog parks, swimming and wading pools, spray-play areas, and storm­water catch basins and inlets, Finney said.

Also, eight Eugene parks are pesticide free, designated that way because residents volunteer to pull weeds from time to time.

Residents also must be willing to accept that the parks may contain more weeds than if herbicides were applied, Finney said.

The city is willing to work with residents to create more pesticide-free parks, he said. “The best way for them to get their park into the program is for them to form a group of committed folks who then would go to their neighborhood association and get its support for the effort,” he said.

Arkin, of Beyond Toxics, said all city parks should be pesticide free.

“It’s an equity issue,” she said. “It’s not fair for a parent in the Bethel area to have to drive all the way to Washington Park in south Eugene to make sure their child plays in a safe park. Parents should be able to take their child to any park and know their child is safe.”

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MORE about the Healthy Bees campaign

Walking The Path to Environmental Victory in Oregon

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Photo by Carla Hervert

I’m writing this from the inner sanctum of the State Capitol building – the 4th floor of the Oregon House of Representatives.  It’s Tuesday, and in only three days on March 8th, Beyond Toxics supporters will join me to walk these hallways and talk with elected leaders.  It’s our day to discuss better pest management policy, more tracking and accountability and, as a result, pesticide reduction. What’s our goal? A healthier world. How are we going to do it? Show up, speak up and work for change.

Beyond Toxics is making impressive headway to passing the Safe Public Places Act, but we can’t do it alone!  WE NEED EVERYONE’S GOOD ENERGY AND PARTICIPATION!  (See who’s already supporting the bill here – and sign on now!)  As environmental advocates, you and I are saying to our legislators … please work hard to pass laws that protect kid’s health, bees, and salmon. The Safe Public Places Act (known in the Capitol as the State Integrated Pest Management bill) will set a new and welcomed standard for strong government policies on toxic chemicals (and a higher respect for the values of human rights and precaution).

Beyond Toxics is a member of the Oregon Conservation Network – the consortium of environmental groups with OLCV working to pass good environmental protection laws. OCN is supporting the Safe Public Places Act!  The OCN staff and environmental lobbyists who stand up for environmental protection laws at the State Capitol deeply appreciate your dedication!  They know the incredible sacrifice of taking a whole day to make environmental health a top issue in the State Senate and House!

It’s not too late to sign-up to go with us!

As you walk the hallways of the inner sanctum, they’re going to be giving Beyond Toxics’ volunteers big smiles and high fives to thank you!  You are the true grassroots, intrepid, and ethical voices and faces of what matters most – Oregonians committing to going beyond toxics.

See you bright and early on Lobby Day – March 8.

Truly, Lisa Arkin

 

 

Social Change Requires Heart

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On this Valentine’s Day of affection, I want to express my gratitude to our members and volunteers. Knowing that you care keeps me traveling back and forth to the State Legislature to talk to elected leaders about pesticide use reduction. You give me the daily fortitude to deliver the message that Oregonians can, and must, be leaders in the fight to reduce pollution in our bodies and the environment. Believe me, that message isn’t always well received by state lawmakers – they require a lot of convincing! So, with you in mind, I continue to knock on their doors and explain how they can help protect Oregon from harmful chemicals.

When I’m fighting for sensible policies to reduce the use of toxic chemicals, I’m always thinking of our members, like Heidi, who is a new volunteer helping us plan our March 8 Lobby Day in Salem. Heidi works full-time and has a three-year old daughter. She wants to be able to take her little girl to playground without worrying about pesticides sprayed on lawns and pathways.

Today I think of Lynn, who pays many hundreds of dollars to the Oregon Department of Forestry to get notices of pending helicopter pesticide sprays in rural Lane County. Lynn brings this information to her rural neighbors so that they can take steps to protect their farm animals and “shelter in place” during these military-style aerial spray operations. She cares because she knows these practices pollute homesteads and salmon streams alike.

Today I recall the dozens of rural residents south of Bend whose wells were poisoned after the County sprayed all the roads in their sub-division with a highly toxic herbicide. I shiver when I remember that this chemical, used to defoliate jungles during the Vietnam War, is now in their baby formula, soup and coffee!

These are real stories from real Beyond Toxics members. Our members want us to be strong advocates for laws that put environment at the heart of what we do in Oregon.

Volunteers make all the difference to inspire and create real power! So please join me and many others on the morning on Friday, March 8 – Beyond Toxics Lobby Day at the State Capitol – to present our case to state government for heart-centered justice in the land we love.

And, when we pass the Safe Public Places law, I promise we’ll all have a massive party to celebrate the vision of one small non-profit with really fabulous and caring members!

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director
Beyond Toxics

MORE about the Safe Public Places Act

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Refusing to be a corporate throw-away community

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Lisa Arkin, Executive Director

Our ground-breaking work centers on bringing the voices of Oregonians to the forefront of policy reform. What do I mean by that? We help people who want to speak “ground-truthing” to power; in other words, using their real experiences to expose corporate financed and secret backroom deals that allow industry polluters to mislead and harm the public.

Two philanthropic organizations recently featured Beyond Toxics as exemplary examples of effective grassroots work. The Resist Foundation (Massachusetts), featured our unique work blending environmental justice with our fight to stop coal trains, and the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation (Oregon) shined a spotlight on our gutsy “get it done” style and list of many accomplishments.

You know, I get calls every week with accounts of what is happening when chemical trespass brings illness and property damage to the lives of every day Oregonians. With your steadfast support, Beyond Toxics can investigate, report and fight for better environmental laws that protect the environment and safeguard our health.

I want to share just a few stories, in addition to the ones I described in the Eugene Weekly. The sad part is the story, but the hopeful part is what Beyond Toxics did to make a positive difference. In each case, we didn’t just troubleshoot an individual problem; instead we elevated grassroots assistance into stronger human health and environmental protections.

Air Toxics, Asthma and School Kids: A teacher in a Lane County school district called to alert us that children were have trouble breathing during recess because of the ammonia and creosote fumes from a nearby factory. Beyond Toxics leapt into action, researched the relationships between air pollution and asthma and got the EPA to investigate the polluting industry for violations. The investigation is underway! We also got Union Pacific Railroad to clean up a huge hazardous waste dump!

Run-Away Power Fuels Coal Trains: As soon as Beyond Toxics heard that an unnamed multinational corporation had signed a secret MOU (“Memorandum of Understanding”) with the Port of Coos Bay to bring coal trains to the Willamette Valley and Oregon Coast, we teamed up with another non-profit to file an Oregon Public Records Request. We are seeking to reveal the identity of the coal companies and their coal export plan. While waiting for the courts to decide if we get access to those records, we have held rallies, teach-ins, marches, and written lots of editorials that gathered the public support to pass an anti-coal train resolution in Eugene.

Oct. 2011 Highway 36 Weed Pull Party

Pesticides on Highways: A woman in Marion County receiving chemo-therapy treatment for cancer begged for a reprieve from roadside spray so that she could protect her weakened immune system from toxic chemicals while driving from her home to her chemo appointments. Her plea went unanswered, so Beyond Toxics used her story and others just like it as the catalyst for our report on just how much pesticide is sprayed on Oregon’s roads and highways. As a result, ODOT has established a 25% chemical reduction goal for 2015.

Beyond Toxics doesn’t sit by and let bad practices and policies continue to harm folks! We take decisive action! Please join our team! We need your membership and involvement. Refuse to be a corporate throw-away by joining now and helping to make environmental health Oregon’s moral and practical standard.

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director
Beyond Toxics

See the news stories about our work in 2012.

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Sighing with Delight…Over Honey!

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Jen and Doug Hornaday's garden

Smooth and succulent.  Translucent colors, amber and smoke.  Made me pause and sigh with delight. Like a wine tasting, but without the alcohol.  I’m talking honey tasting!

This is the fresh, newly extracted honey from the local hives that are part of the Healthy Bees = Healthy Gardens project.  I had never known honey could taste so rich, so distinctive and delectable!  Each tasting was different based on the flowers from where the bees collect their nectar.

Our bee keeping friends, Jen and Doug Hornaday, stopped in to have us taste the fresh honey from each hive they are tending.  This is the project that asks folks to become a Friend of Honey Bees by pledging to not spray any pesticides or toxic garden chemicals (like Weed and Feed) in their yards.  When an entire city block of people sign up, they can become eligible to host a honey bee hive, tended to by Jen and Doug.  There are Pesticide-Free hives near Washington Park, Madison Meadow and near the Fairgrounds.  There is a transitional hive in the River Road area.

You too can taste each of the four honeys at our National Honey Bee Week events – Hideaway Bakery is hosting a Pizza Night on Wednesday, August 15, and Cozmic Pizza and salsa dance band Son Mela’o are featuring pizza and salsa on Saturday, August 18.

Come join us!  Taste the local pesticide-free honey and be amazed (and order a jar for yourself)!  Become a Friend of Healthy Bees, get your face painted, listen to the music, win the photo contest with your best bee or flower picture!  There will be lots of fun!  And eat the best local pizza around.

These fundraisers help us Beyond Toxics advance the Friends of Healthy Bees project, create more honey bee hive havens and advocate for No Spray parks, highways, forests, riparian areas and lots more! I hope to celebrate National Honey Bee Week with you!

Lisa Arkin, Beyond Toxics Executive Director

 

Bees and Our Future

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Photo by Jim Drivas, neighbor and Healthy Bees supporter

Bees are really cool. I have two different bee families happily buzzing and sipping nectar in my backyard. One was a real surprise! I had put out a beautiful bird house that I bought from a vendor at Saturday Market. Instead of a family of finches, I attracted a batch of bumble bees. I see them going in and out of the opening into which they stuffed bits of fluff and string to give themselves privacy!

My second bee family is humming along in a traditional bee box hive. Like the bumble bee crew, the honey bees were gifted a cheerfully painted box from my neighbor Linda, an artist who usually paints furniture and flower boxes. Her bee hive design is wonderful!

I love knowing that my bees are visiting the flowers and vegetables of my neighbors as far away as a few miles, helping to make food grow and bring native plants to life.

I am able to host the bee hive because I have pledged to be pesticide-free, and all the neighbors on my block have taken the same pledge. Nearby Washington Park is also a No-Spray zone, which the Friendly Area Neighbors work hard to maintain without the use of harmful chemicals in partnership with the City of Eugene. Local beekeepers Jen and Doug Hornaday are introducing bee hives and doing the actual beekeeping for residents like me who pledge to make our neighborhoods safe for bees (and kids)! I really want to thank Jen and Doug for helping learn how awesome bees are and helping me host a hive in my backyard.

Bees. Gardens. Food. Health. The Future.

These five things are all related, and intimately so. As the bee goes, so do we. Seventy-five percent of all the flowering plants in North America needs pollination from an insect or bird; bees are the most prodigious pollinator of them all! According to The Daily Green news, a recent National Academy of Sciences report documented a crisis among honey bees and native bumblebees. European studies have documented similar declines in pollinators there. It is a global phenomenon related to the use of pesticides (and other related practices).

If bees disappeared from North America, or from the earth for that matter, a chain of events would be set in motion leading to plant extinctions, crop failures, and eventually famine.

We can make sure this doesn’t happen in our cities, our counties and Oregon! It is so easy to take action that has meaningful and long-lasting results. All you have to do is take the Honey Bee Friend pledge and become a messenger for the sake of the bees in your immediate block. Tell your neighbors how they can pledge, too! And you can help us help the Hornadays build hive boxes and nurture bees throughout our community by becoming one of 1000 Friends of Healthy Bees. We would appreciate your donation of $10 (or more) toward this worthy cause! (from the “Program Designation” option near the top of the page, simply choose the 1000 Friends of Healthy Bees by clicking on the down arrow). We need and very much appreciate your support for this project!

I’ll let you know when the honey is ripe and I have a garden party to celebrate.

Lisa Arkin, Executive Director

Take Action on Pesticide Reform now!

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A representative from the Triangle Lake area reads the Pesticide Reform Guiding Principles at the Triangle Lake School

The Oregon Pesticide Action Workgroup, a project led by Beyond Toxics, has put out a Statement of Principles: The Pesticide Reform Guiding Principles (PDF file). The statement reflects many experienced grassroots voices and years of experience drawing public attention to the dangers of pesticides in our environment and in our bodies. These guiding principles are based on the values of environmental stewardship, human rights, and protection of native wildlife and habitat.

The Pesticide Reform Guiding Principles were first read aloud by a group of approximately 25 environmental health advocates at the Open House at Triangle Lake School on November 18th. The event was hosted by the Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Department of Forestry, Oregon Department of Agriculture and the US Center for Disease Control. The Open House was an informational session about the current pesticide investigation conducted for pesticide drift and run-off in the Coastal Range of Lane County. The investigation by state and federal agencies began in response to the discovery that pesticides 2,4D and atrazine are showing up in the urine of dozens of local residents, including school children.

The purpose of reading the Statement aloud was to clearly state the guiding principles before these state and federal agencies. We must communicate what our government must do to protect the people and sustain the environment.

Please fill out the form below to indicate your support for this initiative:

Pesticide Reform Statement of Principles

Thank you for signing our petition and helping to make a healthier world. Only your name, City and State will be shared with the governor's office. Beyond Toxics will NEVER share email addresses or other personal information with any other party for any reason.

or send us an email with your name, email address and the city and state you live in with some indication of your agreement with the Pesticide Reform Guiding Principles.

The principles and the list of supporters will be presented to Governor Kitzhaber and the appropriate state and federal agencies on December 15th.

People/organizations who have signed on so far:
(see this page for a more current list of petition signers)

Lisa Arkin, Beyond Toxics
Eugene, OR

Deer Creek Valley Natural Resources Conservation Association
Lane County, OR

Roberta Bobbi Lindberg, Beyond Toxics
Cottage Grove, OR

Eron and Justin King
Triangle Lake, OR

RuthAnne Paul
Lane County, OR

Tom Kerns, Director
Environment and Human Rights Advisory
Lane County, OR

Day Owen
Triangle Lake, OR

Genie Harden,
Eugene, OR

Glenn Harden
Eugene, OR

Nancy Miller
Eugene, OR

Neal Miller
Eugene, OR

Evelyn Alford
Lane County, OR

Neila Crocker
Triangle Lake, OR

Roger Doll

Daniel J. Santana
Blachly, OR

Nancy Reed
Lane County, OR

Steve Paulson
Lane County, OR

John Sundquist, Forestland Dwellers
Coburg, OR

Jamon Devotion Cunningham
Lane County, OR

Amy Pincus-Merwin
Eugene, OR

Mala Spotted Eagle
Lane County, OR

Sam Hecocta
Lane County, OR

Chris Logan
Lane County, OR

Melissa Padgett-Voter
Lane County, OR

Sunni Williams
Lane County, OR

JiAna Rae Dollarhide
Eugene, OR

Audrey and Joel Moore
Selma, Oregon

PreciousDirt / IVCAPS (Illinois Valley Coalition of Alternatives to Pesticides)
Illinois Valley, Josephine County, Oregon

B. A. Grodhaus
Selma, Oregon

Frank Cordeiro
Cave Junction, OR

Ann Kneeland
Eugene, OR

Millie Illin
Eugene, OR

Ken Neubeck
Eugene, OR

Gwyneth Iredale
Eugene, OR

Garth Olson
Portland, OR

Tom Schneider
Eugene, OR

Janet Shapan
Denver, CO

William Calvin
Eugene, OR

Rhonda Hampton
Selma, OR

Darise Weller
Portland, OR

Lisa & Justin Rohde
Cave Junction, OR

Kathy Ging
Eugene, OR

Tim Greathouse
Eugene, OR

Has the government sprayed poisons on your route home today?

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When you drive home today, will you be putting your health at risk?

That is the question Beyond Toxics put to the Director of Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) yesterday in a one-on-one meeting. Dr. Tom Kerns, one of our board members, and I sat down with Matt Garrett to discuss our recently released report “Assessing Environmental Impact Quotients for Pesticide Use on State Highways in Lane County” and get his response to the report’s recommendations.

In that report, we expose three main things:

1. ODOT has never before measured the environmental impact of their use of herbicides to manage roadside weeds. Our report was written to provide them a model to do so. (After all, if a tiny, hard working non-profit could do such a helpful analysis, why can’t one of the state’s largest agencies?)

2. The greatest health risk to exposure to pesticides on any of the highways in Lane County occurs on the Randy Papé Beltway (formerly known in Eugene as Beltline Highway). This very short stretch of highway in the middle of Eugene has as much as five times greater magnitude of environmental health harm that any other highway in Lane County.

3. ODOT’s herbicides spray program directs their employees to spray dangerous, probable carcinogens and endocrine disruptors many times, every year, along highways that are directly next to bike paths, apartment buildings, homes, schools, bus stops, churches and businesses, not to mention the rivers, wetlands and rare native salmon habitat. We, the public, need ODOT to consider ways to reduce or eliminate the resulting harm for people, pets, animals, and fish.

Case in point … Garrett was interested, engaging and polite as we talked. But as the subject progressed to specific recommendations – such as does ODOT have a policy not to spray pesticides next to schools and school bus stops? – he balked. He hemmed and hawed. Then he insisted that ODOT may not need a policy because his employees were “people who use and live along highways too, so they would naturally be careful about using pesticides.”

Not so, I told him! Employees do as they are told. ODOT employees are told to spray pesticides, and a lot of them. I reminded him that there has been no direction from the person at the top – from the Director’s office – to prioritize environmental protection, to reduce pesticides, to protect people while carrying out ODOT activities. Other state DOT’s such as Washington have implemented strong and effective policies to protect the environment, and they aren’t afraid to promote the value of reducing pesticides.

Dr. Kerns and I pressed harder. We know our science and we know about the right to clean air and water. We work hard to educate about the rights of children to special protections from chemical trespass.

We argued that the research clearly shows that children are especially vulnerable to being poisoned by pesticides. Their nervous system and reproductive organs are more susceptible to neurotoxicity.

Why?

Mr. Garrett agreed to look into whether or not ODOT has a policy to establish buffer zones of safety from pesticide harm around schools and school bus stops.

I urge you, the person reading this post, to consider protecting children from pesticides as a dire problem and critical to accomplish. And, our proposed solution for ODOT, to measure and institute reductions and alternatives pesticides everywhere, is imperative because ODOT is the largest single user of pesticides in the State system.

If we are to begin a paradigm shift to reduce harm and protect the environment, we must start with a commitment to protect the healthy development of children. There shouldn’t be any “if”s, “and’s,” or “but’s” when it comes to protecting Oregon’s kids from exposure to chemicals that can make them sick or kill them ODOT must lead the way by eliminating pesticides anywhere near where children hang out is absolutely non-trivial. It is essential and effective action.

We are waiting to hear back from Mr. Garrett about when ODOT will make the right decision to protect school children from pesticides on their way to and from school.

Meeting notes from a meeting with Mr. Garrett (PDF file)