Study calls for updated pesticide laws on Kauai
KRYSTLE MARCELLUS / AUG. 2013
A draft report on pesticides used by agribusinesses on Kauai is calling for updated pesticide regulations despite finding nothing suggesting the pesticides cause environmental harm.
LIHUE >> A draft report on pesticides used by agribusinesses on Kauai is calling for updated pesticide regulations despite finding nothing suggesting the pesticides cause environmental harm.
The report, released Thursday, calls on state regulators to increase pesticide regulations to strengthen environmental, agricultural and health data collection, and to establish new standards for chronic, low-level exposure to pesticides. The report suggests the state Department of Agriculture earmark $3 million for those efforts.
Despite the call the action, the Joint Fact-Finding Study Group — a team of nine Kauai residents with science backgrounds — found no substantial evidence that pesticides cause harm to flora, fauna or humans.
The group did find 11 of the approximately 20 known health conditions associated with pesticide exposures in the Kauai population and detailed five of those conditions in the report: developmental delay, ADHD, renal disease, diabetes and obesity.
The $100,000 study was funded by the County of Kauai and Hawaii Department of Agriculture and was commissioned in early 2015.
The report comes as pesticide critics and agriculture groups continue to clash about the use of pesticides on the island. In 2013 Fern Rosenstiel of Kapahi and others petitioned lawmakers to require Kauai farmers to better detail their pesticide use and regulate how they grow genetically modified crops.
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho vetoed the resulting bill, but the veto was later overridden by the County Council.
Rosenstiel on Thursday said the study highlights the government’s failures to monitor how pesticides are impacting health and how Carvalho erred when killing the initial bill.
“This study came from the mayor who vetoes our bill,” Rosenstiel said. “I’m relieved to see that his own team found that we’re not lying. Lawmakers can’t stand idly by while our community is poisoned by pesticides.”
But for agribusinesses, the report serves as proof that their practices are safe.
“(The report) should reassure residents of Kauai that there are no serious environmental or human health concerns connected to the use of pesticides by seed companies,” said Bennette Misalucha, executive director of the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, in a statement.
12 responses to “Study calls for updated pesticide laws on Kauai”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The main conclusion of the report is that there is no data being collected to determine how much pesticides the people of Kauai are being exposed to and what those effects are. We do know that pesticides are meant to kill.
Should ban the use of bug sprays and termite control products in residential areas first.
SO are you planning on eating anything that the termites are eating? Like your house.
PAN Senior Scientist Dr. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman released a statement calling for urgent action from both EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the widely used herbicide:
“Continuing with ‘business as usual’ means ongoing daily exposure in rural communities to a probable cancer-causing chemical — and is not an option…. Now more than ever, American farmers need support in shifting from today’s toxic, ineffective and unsustainable model of agriculture into one that is productive, ecologically resilient, healthy and safe.”
..”a team of nine Kauai citizens with science backgrounds”..(?) (Sixth-Grade “General Science”(?))
Most know that many on Kauai are employed and/or maligned (financially and politically) with Syngenta and Monsanto, et al… “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Malcolm X
I am not an anti-science zealot (my second degree from Berkeley was in Biochemistry) and definitely not, unlike a couple of my friends, a member of any group with a name like “Babes against Biotech.” However, I see no problem with being prudent and coming down on the side of caution when we don’t have enough evidence to determine things like threshold levels for pesticide exposure. We need accurate data and we need to use that data to inform sensible policies for human needs and not for political purposes. After all, in 1900, there wasn’t the information widely available about the extreme potential harm of lead in paints for example.
Thank you for your very common sense intelligent statement.
Well said! Thanks.
… or asbestos, heroin, tobacco, dioxins, DDT, flourocarbons, and many other drugs and chemicals we now know to be harmful to health.
The lack of evidence for harm is not the same as evidence for safety. In the US, with our tradition of unfettered capitalism, businesses don’t have to prove safety before exposing populations to their chemical inventions. They are usually disinclined to support safety research because it is not needed to market chemicals and only poses a threat to their profits. Our businesses invest in lawyers, lobbyists and PR firms, not toxicologists and epidemiologists who can find the answers. They are not interested in the truth. This just makes good business sense in our current system.
We do require premarket safety testing for pharmaceuticals, and this can be costly. Other countries require similar environmental and safety testing for many chemicals, including pesticides. This may be common sense, but it’s not as profitable as our current system. For those who lament this wild west approach to public health, look on the bright side, at least we’re not as bad as China. Now that’s a free market.
All we need is a GMO Human. Problem solved.
This state won’t strongly regulate these AG companies because it would affect the campaign money being paid to the democratic party of Hawaii. That’s the bottom line, until there is definitive proof of harm, none of our corrupt politicians will act in a way that cuts their funds.