a letter to the editor

Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 19:26:00 -0300
From: "Leighton (Larry) Steele" <lsteele.employee.msvu@msvu1.msvu.ca>
To: Sustainable Maritimes <sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca>
Precedence: bulk
Return-Path: <sust-mar-mml-owner@chebucto.ns.ca>

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects


The Weed Man: Ethically Challenged?

A friend of mine, a mother of 3 young children, smelled a powerful,
acrid odour the other day on her property located on Edward Arab
Avenue.. She was shocked to discover that the “Weed Man” had just
sprayed Par 3, a product containing Dicamba, Mecoprop and 2-4D on a
nearby property. The 2-4 D alone is a known carcinogen associated with
toxic injury to the kidney,  liver and the central nervous system along
with delayed fetal development and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,. This was a
blatant violation of the HRM Pesticide Bylaw, as the application
occurred less than 20 meters away from Westmount Elementary School (the
bylaw forbids such use within 50 meters of a school or playground).
Unfortunately for the schoolchildren and nearby residents, the required
warning signs were only kept up for 2 days instead of the legislated 4
days.

My friend’s husband phoned the “Weed Man” himself, who goes by the name
of Andrew Wheelock, to question him. Faced with the obvious questions
from concerned parents, Mr. Wheelock hung up the phone without offering
any explanation for why he thinks it is okay to spray illegal poisons in
the proximity of school children.  Next, my friend spoke with the HRM
Bylaw Enforcement Officer Mr Zabo, who informed her that the Weed Man
had already 12 related offenses on record. For some reason, perhaps it
is that the Weed Man can simply absorb the cost of imposed fines, the
HRM has been so far unable to put a stop to the violations.

It is time the public lets the Weed Man know that such disrespect for
the law and,  indeed,  for simple moral decency has no place in our
community.

Yours Truly,

Leighton Steele

PS. By the way, I gave a call to Mr. Wheelock myself at 468-9333 and you
might try the same if you feel as outraged as I do.


--
Leighton (Larry) Steele
Modern Languages Dept.
Mount Saint Vincent University
Phone : 457-6113
Fax : 425-0901



-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes
mailing list (sust-mar).  http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo  mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca

To submit a message to sust-mar, please send it to:
mailto:sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca

PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY
MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED

next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects