"What You Don't Know Can Kill You"

This article was originally posted on July 15th, 2007. With cultivation season upon us and pesticide use at it's highest amounts ever on the island of Kauai, we repost this resource.

The general term "pesticide" includes herbicides, fumigants, insecticides, nemacides, fungicides, miticides, rodenticides, termiticides, molluscides, acaricides, bird repellents and some wood preservatives (1).

In California, glyphosate is the third most commonly-reported cause of pesticide related illness among agricultural workers (2). The active ingredient in Syngenta's Touchdown product is glyphosate (3). Of the ten chemicals known to have been applied to Ag lands adjacent W.C.M.S (see Pesticide 101), glyphosate is the most benign. Six of the chemicals are considered Cholinesterase inhibitors (4). While the effects of cholinesterase inhibiting products are intended for insect pests, these chemicals can also be poisonous, or toxic to humans in some situations. Human exposure to cholinesterase inhibiting chemicals can result from inhalation, ingestion, eye and skin contact during the manufacture, mixing, or applications of these pesticides (5). Unfortunately, signs and symptoms of cholinesterase inhibition from exposure can be confused with influenza (flu), heat prostration, alcohol intoxication, exhaustion, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), asthma, gastroenteritis, pneumonia, and brain hemorrhage. This can cause problems if the symptoms of lowered cholinesterase levels are either ignored or misdiagnosed as something more or less harmful than they really are (5,6). To date Hawaii DOA/DOH has made no attempt to correlate the school health aide records of reported illness and/or staff statements with Syngenta spray operation application type, time & dates. Informal attempts show a significant correlation of spray dates and student/staff "spikes" of illness indicative of chronic pesticide exposure.

1. Colorado Dept. of Health and Environment
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/HM/hhw/howto/pesticides.htm

2. "Glyphosate Fact Sheet"

Original Article: http://www.safe2use.com/poisons-pesticides/pesticides/organo/glyphosate.htm

3. Product Details: Touchdown HiTech (Herbicide)

http://www.syngentacropprotection-us.com/prod/herbicide/TouchdownHiTech/

4. PAN Pesticides Database

http://pesticideinfo.org/Index.html

5. "CHOLINESTERASE INHIBITION"

http://www.uoguelph.ca/GTI/urbanpst/cholin_t.htm

6. Image: "Manifestations of Organophosphate Insecticide Poisoning"

http://www.nutrition4health.org/NOHAnews/NNS90PesticideEffectsBodyDiagram.htm

Action Alerts

your voice counts...

Earthjustice

"...we're asking the government to set safety standards protecting children who grow up near farms from the harmful effects of pesticide drift—the toxic spray or vapor that travels from treated fields. We're also asking officials to immediately adopt no-spray buffer zones around homes, schools, parks and daycare centers for the most dangerous and drift-prone pesticides... Children who live, go to school, and play near farms and orchards deserve to be kept safe from poisonous pesticides. Ask your congressperson to support this effort (1)."

Take action here:


Pesticide Action Network


"Despite campaign promises to the contrary, President Obama has nominated to two key posts “Big Ag” industry insiders who come straight from the chemical pesticide and biotechnology sectors. We need 50,000 signatures! To make this kind of impact, PAN is joining a broad coalition of partner groups from around the country in mobilizing to block these nominations (2)."

Take action here:


1. Earthjustice Action Alert:
http://action.earthjustice.org/campaign/pesticides_1009?rk=n7SmeW6qAqY7E
2.PAN Take Action:
http://action.panna.org/t/5185/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2150

Food Inc.

"Pesticides and You"

The Precautionary Principle

"When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically. In this context the proponent of an activity, rather than the public, should bear the burden of proof. The process of applying the precautionary principle must be open, informed, democratic, and must include potentially affected parties. It must also involve an examination of the full range of alternatives, including no action." - Wingspread Statement on the Precautionary Principle, Jan. 1998

1. Science & Health Network: "The Precautionary Principle"
http://www.sehn.org/precaution.html
2. Science & Health Network: "Precautionary Principle" an essay by Michael Pollen
3. Guidelines for applying the Precautionary Principle to Biodiversity and Natural Resource Management, http://www.pprinciple.net/PP_guidelines_brochure.pdf
4. Beyond Pesticides: "Pesticides and You"
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/infoservices/pesticidesandyou/index.htm

"Pesticides and You"

Exposure: an act of subjecting

An occupational exposure is the exposure to potentially harmful chemical, physical, or biological agents that occurs as a result of one's occupation. Exposure risk of children to organophosphorus pesticide in an agricultural community in Central Washington State was determined. Spot urine and hand wipe samples were collected from 109 children 9 months to 6 years of age, as were house dust samples, and wipe samples from various surfaces. Children were categorized based on parental occupation (agricultural vs nonagricultural) and on household proximity to pesticide-treated areas. Findings indicate that children living with parents who work with agricultural pesticides, or who live in proximity to pesticide treated farmland, have higher exposures than do other children living in the same community (3).
Children are the most susceptible population to environmental contaminants since: (a) their organs and neurological system are rapidly developing; (b) their intake (air, water, food, beverage) is greater relative to body size and weight; (c) their activities, behavior and proximity to the surfaces enhance their potential contact with toxic substances (4). For the pesticides examined, exposures pose greater risks of chronic effects than acute effects (5).
The Journal of American Medicine recommends adoption of pesticide spray buffer zones around schools (6). Surveys revealed that many farmworkers and their families are not adequately educated as to proper safety precautions. Misconceptions about post-application clean-up procedures and safe levels of proximity to treated crops may increase the risk of exposure for farmworker children (7).

1.Beyond Pesticides: "Pesticides and You"
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/infoservices/pesticidesandyou/index.htm
2. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Exposure
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/exposure;_ylt=AqsmW.frLLHUOv41R_DzpLKsgMMF
3. Pesticide Exposure in Children in an Agricultural Community...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11097803
Mom's pesticide exposure at work increases her child's leukemia risk.
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/moms-pesticide-contact-at-work-increases-childs-leukemia-risk
4. Vulnerability of Young Children to Organophosphate Pesticides...
http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncer_abstracts/index.cfm/fuseaction/display.abstractDetail/abstract/976
5. Evaluating Health Risks from Occupational Exposure to Pesticides and the Regulatory Response
<sup>http://www.ehponline.org/docs/1994/102-12/woodruff.html
6 . JAMA: Acute Illnesses Associated With Pesticide Exposure at Schools
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/294/4/455.pdf
7. Farmworker Children
http://www.panna.org/opsAbstracts/fwchildren</sup>

"Pesticides and You"

Alternatives to pesticide use...

In our continued effort to provide current accurate, researched based, information on the adverse effects of pesticides and GMO agriculture, we begin a series of articles which will share resources you can download in reference to "Pesticides and You".

The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides protects the health of people and the environment by advancing alternatives to pesticides. Information fact sheets on alternatives to pesticide use to control pests and weeds can be located at, http://www.pesticide.org/factsheets.html


1. The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides Homepage
http://www.pesticide.org/default.htm
2.Beyond Pesticide: "Pesticides and you"
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/infoservices/pesticidesandyou/index.htm
3. Image: Pesticide Free Zone
http://www.gardenoforganicdelights.org/PesticideFreeZone.jpg
4. Alternatives to Pesticide PDF
http://www.bernards.org/boards_commissions/green_team/pptdocfolder/Alternative%20Pesticides.pdf

Free Movie

Waimea Theater - June 23rd, 2009from 7pm to 9pm

"The World According to Monsanto"

1. Free Movie*** The World According to Monsanto: Waimea Theater June 23rd, 2009.
http://surfriderkauai.ning.com/events/free-movie-the-world-according
2. "The World According to Monsanto": Controlling Our Food - French Documentary
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6262083407501596844

Stewards of the Land?

Dow and dirty...

According to news reports, the latest player in Kauai's transgenic seed corn industry will be Dow Chemical. 3400 acres of red Westside soil will be planted with corn and soybeans destined not for the dinner plates of Kauai's people. The seed corn business, which dominates the west Kauai landscape continues to bloom, or explode. Dow has indicated that it intends to continue the tradition of "good land stewardship that Gay & Robinson has demonstrated over past decades" (1).

What kind of stewardship record does Dow have? They are the second largest chemical manufacturer in the world and have brought us historic products such as napalm and agent orange. Both chemicals memorialized by the legacy of death and deformation to those exposed during the Vietnam War. Dow headquarters in Modland, Michigan is the source point for dioxin's that will contaminat the land and water for generations to come.

In 2003, the state of New York won a $2 million claim against Dow for advertising Chlorpyrifos as "safe." A nerve toxin and endocrine disruptor; Chlorpyrifos is still used by agribusiness primarily in developing countries and the fields of Kauai.

Dow's legacy of environmental and social injustice is too long to list in this article. They now join a list of multi-national chemical corporations participating in a Kauai land grab not seen since the Great Mahele. At what benefit? At what cost?

1. Star bulletin
http://www.starbulletin.com/business/20090429_Dow_AgroScience_to_lease_Kauai_sugar_lands.htm
2. Students for Bhopal
http://www.studentsforbhopal.org/DirtyDow.htm#DangerousNeighbor
3. Stewards of the Land?
http://www.box.net/shared/nc102hq2ai
4. Dow Chemcial Company
http://www.dow.com/

Theater 101

Staged: the scene of an event or of a series of events, untrue.

The existing condition or state of affairs is known as the status quo. Staged events occurring are not always presented for viewing, but as an illusion. Take for instance a white lab coat. I'm ready to allow the cosmetics girl at Macy's to do my hip replacement. "Sorry if I offended you. I didn't know you didn't have a background in science."Fortunately her goals do not threaten biodiversity. Or, take for instance an air sampler in June taking samples on the roof of a building for "asbestos". Looks official, sounds official, somethings wrong? Lets' set up another one at the Dept. of Labor guy's house. Good idea, high five. A stage is not a platform when it is a position. A study is not a study when it is staged. It's beyond amazing what some do to ensure a status quo. In fact it's criminal. You'll find what you look for. Our C.B.P.R. continues...

" I did my apprenticeship in the GMO seed/Pesticide industry.
My friend's call me Doug."

1. Image: Dr. Evil
2. C.P.B.R: see April 17th, 2008 blog entry.
https://www1.georgetown.edu/centers/socialjustice/

"THE APPEAL"

by John Grisham

Hawaii - 2009
While the media whips up an emotional tide of focus on House Bill 444 (RELATING TO CIVIL UNIONS); as if using John Grisham's novel "The Appeal" as a script, House Bill 1226 (RELATING TO GENETICALLY MODIFIED PLANT ORGANISMS) slithers it's way through the Hawaii State Legislature with little opposition.

OPPOSE HB 1226

Write letters of opposition to:
Hawaii State Legislature House of Representatives
Agricultural Committee
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/house/comm/commAGR.asp

Send testimony in opposition to:
Hawaii State Legislature
Submit Testimony by Email
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/emailtestimony/Default.aspx

"Fleecing the Flock"

"Wolves in Sheep's Clothing"

A quite pall has encroached upon the beauty of Hawaii. Given cart blanche by federal and state government; biotechnology companies have become the islands most dangerous invasive species. As biotech's Petri dish of the Pacific, no other place in the world has the acreage of open air test fields as in Hawaii. With many of these test field's only short distances from communities and school's, Hawaii's citizens have unwittingly become the biotech industries human test subjects (i.e. guinea pigs). Believe in science? In a recent N.Y. Times article titled Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research author Andrew Pollack writes, "Biotechnology companies are keeping university scientists from fully researching the effectiveness and environmental impact of the industry's genetically modified crops, according to an unusual complaint issued by a group of those scientists." History repeats itself. How many books need to be written, movies made before we learn to beware of wolves in sheep's clothing, those that bare false gifts, and in Hawaii's case fascists in farmers clothes? Please SUPPORT SB 239 "Right to Know" Bill and OPPOSE HB 1226 "Subjugation" Bill.

1. "Crop Scientists Say Biotechnology Seed Companies Are Thwarting Research," by Andrew Pollack
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/20crop.html?_r=1
2. Hawaii State SB 239: "Right to Know" Bill; HB 1226: "Subjugation" Bill
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2009/bills/SB239_SD1_.pdf
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2009/bills/HB1226_HD1_.pdf

"Stinky Study" (part 2)

Confused: lacking logical order or sense.



Former Kauai County Council Vice Chair Mel Rapozo introduced Bill 2278 with good intentions. Along with a disregard for cultural sensibility, an understanding of how the $50,000 of county funds will be used is unclear even to the Bill's protagonist.

1. "Stinky Study" (part 2); excerpt from Kauai County Council meeting 10/09/2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCCYHnKEw4g