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Please attend to testify:
Requested update on pest management pilot program scheduled for:
Monday Feb 1 at 1:30 PM
County Of Maui Council Chambers,
200 High st. 8th Floor
Sign the Petition
For immediate release: Jan. 30, 2016
Press release by:
Elle Cochran, Chair
Infrastructure and Environmental Management Committee
Maui County Council
“We are hopeful the update will allow the committee and the community to learn details about the department’s pilot program since there have been strong community concerns about Roundup’s environmental and health effects,” Cochran said. “If the state Department of Transportation’s Maui District was able to transition to using organic products and mechanical methods for roadside weed control, as has been reported, I am hopeful our county will be able to do the same.
FULL PRESS RELEASE LINK
To submit late testimony ASAP, email iem.co...@mauicounty.us, referencing IEM-11(2) for the pilot program and IEM-10 for the Lower Nahiku Bridge update.
A message from campaign organizer Gretchen Losano
Please come testify in favor of the county dept. of Public Works adopting a safe and non-toxic pest management program. We ask that all of those testifying be respectful yet firm. Please bring your photos and videos, especially those that show the County of Maui trucks or workers spraying near water (rivers or the ocean), storm drains, etc (because they do not have the proper permit to be doing this), near schools, in parks, and epecially photographs of the lack of proper signage, which is also illegal.
The long term and often excessive use of the herbicide Roundup Pro, and other glyphosate based herbicides to control weeds in our city parks and roadways unnecessarily expose children, adults, and wildlife to a toxic stew of chemicals.
This poison is being sprayed all over our roadways, city parks, and next to schools. And with no warning, signs, or mandated limitations around application? This must stop. There are better ways to keep up our parks, roadways and playgrounds without spraying toxins that harm our children!
They pick up everything and put things in their mouth. Their skin and lungs are much more absorbent than adult skin and lungs. Their growing bodies don't have the ability to filter environmental toxins as well as adults. Their systems need nourishment, not poison!
Glyphosate:
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, the specialised cancer agency of the World Health Organization, asked a group of experts to spend a year examining the data from peer-reviewed studies about glyphosate. The research found that the herbicide, along with two other insecticides, was classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” — a description used when there is limited evidence of cancer-causing effects on humans, yet sufficient evidence of it in animals.
Neonicotinoids:
Neonicotinoids have been widely cited in the demise of both managed and wild bee and pollinator populations. Acting as potent neurotoxins, studies have found the insecticides have the ability to disrupt the reproduction, navigation, and foraging of bees exposed even to infinitesimal concentrations.
Let's stop gambling with our health and the health of our environment and ask that the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation, Maui County Department of Transportation and Maui County Department of Parks and Recreation stop spraying Roundup and other glyphosate based herbicides and neonicotinoids and adopt a safer and smarter alternative weed control strategy.
Via Autumn Rae Ness
Call to action re: Spraying RoundUp and other pesticides on roadways, parks & other Maui County Property.
Our big push to get Maui County to stop using Round Up and other pesticides is ON.
Our next step:
Please come to the Public Works Department update on Monday, Feb 1st at 1:30 pm to ask the Department of Public Works to STOP using RoundUp and any other synthetic pesticides on roadways & other county property.
-Ask them to find alternative weed control techniques.
-Remind them that current roadside spraying techniques are violating Hawaii State Pesticide Law, by not ensuring that people and pets don't walk through wet spray.
This is our first chance to bring your concerns about County use of RoundUp to the floor of the Maui County Council, on record.
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