Letters
to Government:
Help Needed to stop EPA
from discouraging alternatives to pesticide poisons for pest control
From: Carla Virga
To: senator@feinstein.senate.gov ; doug.ose@mail.house.gov
Cc: steve@getipm.com
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2001 6:12 PM
Subject: Help Needed to stop EPA from discouraging alternatives to pesticide poisons for pest control
From the looks of it, the EPA is either crazy or out of control. Can you help, or is the EPA a rogue agency set up to serve only the interests of the pest control industry?
Dear Senator Helms,
I have recently become aware of threats made by the EPA against one of the finest people I have
ever known in my life. Steve Tvedten has volunteered untold time to help poisoned people.
He has never said no when I have called upon him to help and he has never asked for one cent in
compensation. He is purely motivated by compassion and justice. I have used his methods
of pest control successfully for years as we must now avoid all pesticides. I look at this simply
as another attack on our children and our environment by the illegal Bush administration.
Please look into this as soon as possible please.
This harassment must stop.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth O'Nan
E.M.T. O'Nan
Director
Protect All Children's Environment
396 Sugar Cove Road
Marion, North Carolina 28752
Phone: (828) 724 4221
Fax: (828) 724 4177
Email: pace@mcdowell.main.nc.us
Website: http://www.main.nc.us/pace
Dear Senator Schumer,
BRIEF BACKGROUND:
I am one of your constituents who has become disabled in
the past two years due to pesticide exposures.
The first major damage occurred in a school I used to supervise in 1999
where pyrethroid usage resulted in brain damage, ending my career as a speech
therapist and school administrator. A
residential exposure which
occurred the following year left me so physically ill that I cannot work in
any capacity at present.
I had know for many years that I was sensitive to
pesticide chemicals and had requested in each setting,
to be notified prior to the use of such products. I was promised this
would occur in each locale but such warnings were never actually issued when
pesticide applications utimately occured.
The law upholds the legal poisoning of bystanders with such products.
and even the EPA would not investigate the illegalities surrounding the
use of registered products. I
have lost all that I was and all that I owned as a result.
I am now a burden on society where I had previously been among its most
productive members. I even had to live in my car for a month when I could not
find safe housing free of pesticides which was affordable.
CURRENT QUESTION:
I currently have agreements with my landlords to provide
all pest control using methods which will not harm myself or anyone else.
In searching for these products and techniques, with my life literally
on the line, I came across many important sources of information over the past
years. The most important sites
were:
getipm.com
and
safe2use.com
These educated me in things I could make myself or
request of a knowledgable pest control expert. No longer would I be at the
mercy of some idiot who, following a 40 hour course taught by another
ignoramus in biochemistry, was
given a license to kill targeted
and nontargeted life forms (like me), with
these poisons. For
instance, I recently dealt with a household
incursion of sugar ants with a spray bottle I filled with vinegar,
liquid dishwashing soap and lemon juice.
They were gone with just a few applications and I was not further
damaged in the process. The
expense was minimal and the benefits enormous.
There was no charge for obtaining this information from literature
cited on the above named websites.
I was just informed by persons associated with these
websites that the EPA intends to fine them.
The fines will be for as
yet un-named violations for information or product claims which appear on
their sites. Please note that I have never purchased anything from these
sites, just used them informationally.
My question is this: Why would the EPA fine such parties
who provide life saving information without warning or an opportunity to
remediate any faults in their advertising or informational materials?
The EPA permits companies responsible for the deaths and the crippling of
millions of persons such as myself to
just "withdraw" their killing instruments from the marketplace (e.g.
Dursban, Diazanon). The pesticide industry, manufacturers and applicators
alike, literally get away with murder. Why
are these people being prosecuted without prior notice of investigation or
complaint?
It is my fervent hope that you can find out the facts of
this matter. These people saved my life in providing me with source material
which informed me why my health
was deteriorating. WIthout this source material, I could never have directed
my doctors as to where to look or what tests to give me and ultimately reveal
the nature of my poisonings. Doctors are not educated in these matters and
even the EPA prints out a text book on the subject, urging people to give it
to their ill-informed doctors.
Please preserve the opportunity for people like me to
live through access to the truth printed on these sites. If these people have unintentionally printed something which
is untrue or omitted some warning appropriate to a product they recommend,
shouldn't they have the opportunity to rectify their error just as industry is
permitted for far more dangerous actions?
Please see that the law is implemented in an even handed
fashion. I hope you will
investigate and determine what is occurring here since there are far greater
issues at stake here for all concerned.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Barbara Rubin
P.O. Box 224
Locust Valley, NY 11560
Raisyl@webtv.net