How to kill weeds without killing yourself.........or be sued........
Subject: How to kill weeds without killing yourself.........or be sued.........
Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 09:36:48 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker, as the head of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation who only allows the use/misuse of "registered" pesticide POISONS; I thought you might like to read an e-mail I just received from a friend of mine who is worried she might be attacked (again) for speaking out in this land, that supposedly guarantees us Freedom of Speech:
For safety's sake, I am sending you a copy of this email. I'd like to ask a favor. Please keep a copy of it in a safe place for me. From time to time I get things like this because of our RoundUp toxicity site. I work hard to offer only facts, nothing which Monsanto could use in a law suit. But, I am also aware that each person inquiring about RoundUp could be an employee of Monsanto. Feel free to share the information in this email however you choose. The important part to me is that someone have a copy of it if I am ever sued. That way I can prove It is as I sent it and not as it may have been changed in order to facilitate a law suit. Thanks.
Best Regards, Suzanne ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Greetings!
The best advice I can give you is to read the Glyphosate Fact Sheet by Caroline Cox at http://www.efn.org/~ncap/factsheets.html
Scroll down to and click on Glyphosate (Roundup, etc.) and click on both pdf files. You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them.
There you can read the substantial potential damage to humans and the environment by the use of RoundUp Herbicide.
There is also a wonderful article at http://www.naorpco.com/poison.htm on the use of weed killers.
If all this convinces you to use a safer alternative, then you might want to try either vinegar or baking soda. Both are effective weed killers.
Here are some other articles on safer weed control: http://www.execpc.com/~mjstouff/articles/no_weeds.html http://doityourself.com/tools/weedcontrolflamers.htm http://www.chemfree-weedcontrol.com/
Of course, I am a bit biased about protecting our planet.
An exposure to the drift of RoundUp applied on our property without our knowledge or permission came very close to killing me. If I had not been fortunate enough to find a researcher who had been doing research on reversing the rapid pseudocholinesterase decline caused by RoundUp exposure, you would not have found the web site on RoundUp toxicity I did unless you had been searching the celestial internet. I had to call all over the US to find this researcher after being told by person after person that nothing could stop the pseudocholinestersase decline, and that I would shortly be dead.
As it is, my health has been permanently altered for the worse due to RoundUp poisoning. Thanks to RoundUp I sustained liver damage, damage to my red blood cells, and organic brain damage, as well as damage to the following body systems: endocrine, neurological, glandular, heme synthesis, porphyrin synthesis, just to name a few. I have lost a lot because of RoundUp Herbicide.
Just taking the tops off plants will not stop cats who need or want grass. Our precious cat friend ate some of the grass that had been sprayed with RoundUp the day before, went into renal failure and died.
I offer all this in the hope that you will reconsider using this product.
Best Regards, Suzanne
At 06:02 PM 2/1/02 -0800, you wrote: Hello!
I was very pleased to find your well-organized Web site concerning RoundUp. I am concerned about the toxicity of this herbicide, which I am contemplating using, but I cannot judge the severity of the toxicity without knowing what "exposure" means in the various instances.
In one context, mention is made of "breathing" RoundUp, in its liquid state, I gather. (This sort of exposure I can prevent with a mask, and by applying the herbicide according to the package directions--i.e., at close range, and on a day that is not windy.) Elsewhere, mention is made of ingesting it. Does this mean ingestion of plants treated with the herbicide? (I don't see this as a risk to humans in my instance, but I could remove the tops of treated plants to prevent the neighborhood kitties from eating them.) In one context, mention is made of injecting the herbicide--and this, of course, I don't intend to do (indeed, I'm a little miffed that anyone would conduct such a test, even on a mouse). I am sensitive to the danger of water contamination, but the Theodore Payne Foundation (my local native plant source) has assured me that the danger of RoundUp reaching the water table is extremely remote. Indeed, they recommended that I use it.
Even so, I would be happy to employ an alternative that would allow me to eradicate the remains of my lawn and put in Xeriscape this spring. I removed the lawn with a sod cutter in November and donated it to the Pasadena Unified School District, who promptly planted it at a local preschool, where it has been very much appreciated. I immediately covered the 1600 square feet of former lawn with black plastic, and that has kept the grass from growing back for the time being, except some tufts at the edges. But this grass is a perennial weed, Kikiyu, and its roots will not be killed by solarization under black plastic--even after an entire growing season (i.e., even until next winter). It propagates by rhizomes deep in the soil, so even when you pull it up by the roots (a measure that cannot be taken once you have planted ground covers with more shallow root systems), you have invariably left tiny bits behind--each of which produces a new plant--even as far as 12 inches below the soil, so mulching is worthless in this instance. Aside from removing 18" of topsoil (How many cubic feet is that? How could I possibly accomplish such a feat? And where would I get that much topsoil to replace it?), I'm at a loss.
Help!
Claire
Well Mr Helliker, we live in a very interesting time when the people's rights are continually being ignored and/or abused in order for there to be more corporate profits. There is a Yiddish Proverb that says: "What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul." How many innocents must cry out to you, suffer and/or die, before you will "legally" allow the use of safe and far more effective (unregistered) alternatives?
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
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