media release - PEI pesticides

Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 20:33:08 -0300
To: sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca
From: Sharon Labchuk <slabchuk@isn.net>
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EARTH ACTION
81 Prince Street  Charlottetown  PEI C1A 4R3   
Tel: 902-621-0719   Email: slabchuk@isn.net



MEDIA RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



PROVINCE FAILS TO PROTECT PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE FROM POISONOUS PESTICIDES

August 8, 2000


Charlottetown - The Prince Edward Island government has failed miserably to
protect wildlife and humans from the poisonous effects of intense
industrial agriculture pesticide spraying, says Earth Action, a PEI
activist organization.  And to make matters worse, says spokesperson Sharon
Labchuk, when polluters are caught and taken before the courts, ineffectual
legislation allows them to walk  away from charges.

"This latest court case, where on August 8th, the charges were stayed
against Hayden Produce for annihilating all life in the Valleyfield River
last summer, is just one more example of this province's useless
environmental protection laws," says Labchuk.  "The priority in this
province is not protecting citizens or wildlife from the harmful effects of
pesticides, but allowing the potato industry to do whatever it wants, at
whatever cost."

Labchuk points to another case earlier this year where poorly written
forest buffer zone legislation failed to stand up in court after a forest
contractor was charged.  

She says the Province has the power to ban any of the pesticides used on
PEI but refuses to do so.  " Earth Action lobbied the Province for three
years for a ban on the exceptionally toxic insecticide carbofuran ," says
Labchuk.    "It's a notorious bird-killer and toxic to just about every
other life form too.  Last year, the PEI Department of Environment was
summoned to appear before a House of Commons committee investigating
pesticide use.  The Committee asked then-Deputy Minister Bill Drost why,
when the Province was in possession of virtually all scientific data on
carbofuran and when Environment Canada recommends it be banned on potatoes,
did the province not ban its use.  Drost offered the lame excuse that the
Province is afraid to ban any pesticide for fear of legal retaliation from
the chemical industry."

Labchuk says this is nonsense and that in the United States pesticides are
routinely banned and restricted by individual states.  Just another example
of potato industry protectionism at the expense of human health and the
environment she says.

"Only two pieces of legislation directly address human and wildlife
protection from pesticides and both are a sham," says Labchuk.  "Growers
are not allowed to spray in winds exceeding 25 kmph.  This is far too high
and might as well be 100 kmph for all the protection it offers.  And some
potato pesticides are not legal for use when wind speeds are much lower
than 25 kmph.  The grower knows this because its written on the pesticide
label but how is the person living next door to a field supposed to know
when a pesticide is being used illegally?"

She says 102 pesticide complaints were made to the Province's Pesticide
Regulatory Program in 1998 and of the 55 complaints actually investigated
only 1 ticket was issued.  "The Pesticide Police program was put in place
in response to public outrage over spray drift," says Labchuk.  "But it has
almost no authority to protect humans or wildlife.  It's simply a public
relations ploy - an expensive one at that."

Labchuk is also critical of buffer zone legislation.  She says it is futile
to embark on the path of pesticide damage control because once pesticides
are released into the environment they travel the globe, even ending up in
the breast milk of women in the Arctic.  "Environment Canada found that
under favourable conditions, enough of the insecticide endosulfan, commonly
used on PEI potatoes, was deposited 200 metres away from an aerial
application site to kill captive fish within 24 hours," she says.  "
California requires a 300 foot buffer zone for this same insecticide."

Many Islanders who have been driven from their homes and even the province
because of pesticide spraying, says Labchuk, have contacted Earth Action.
"These people have suffered ill health and financial loss because there is
no legal protection on PEI for the most basic of human rights - the right
to not be involuntarily contaminated by toxic chemicals.  They won't speak
publicly because they fear retaliation.  In some cases, people are trying
to sell their homes because family members are sick from pesticides.  If
they speak out no one will purchase their homes and there will be no
compensation for them. Other people have left the Province out of
desperation and found a dramatic improvement in health when they got away
from the pesticide spray drift."

Labchuk says the solution in the short term is strict legislation to
protect human health and the environment. But only with the complete
elimination of pesticides as quickly as possible and a commitment to
small-scale organic agriculture, will PEI once again become a healthy safe
place for humans and wildlife to live.

- 30 -

Contact:  Sharon Labchuk  621-0719




*****************
Sharon Labchuk
Earth Action
81 Prince Street
Charlottetown, PEI  C1A 4R3
phone/fax  902-621-0719
slabchuk@isn.net



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