Pesticide War Just Beginning, MD Warns

Subject: Pesticide War Just Beginning, MD Warns
Date:     Tue, 18 Jun 2002 08:28:31 -0400
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

Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might like to read an article dated: Monday June 10, 2002 from The Kitchener Waterloo Record entitled: Pesticide War Just Beginning, MD Warns by EUGENE MCCARTHY - RECORD STAFF.

KITCHENER -- Battle lines are hardening in the war over pesticide use in Canada, the president of a physicians' environmental group said in Kitchener yesterday.

Dr. Warren Bell, a family practitioner from Salmon Arm, B.C., was in Kitchener on the last leg of a series of meetings in Ontario as president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. The gathering was organized by local anti-pesticide activists.

Bell also discussed with the local group what it is currently doing and was told that Waterloo Region last week decided to seek public input on pesticide use -- and get legal advice -- before it considers enacting legislation curbing or eliminating its use.

The authority to proceed with such legislation derives from the decision a year ago of the Supreme Court of Canada which upheld the right of municipalities to govern pesticide use in municipalities.

That decision, said Bell, "threw pesticide manufacturers into a tailspin" and forced them to admit that they "blew it" by concentrating lobbying efforts at the "higher echelons" and not paying attention to the "grassroots" organizations such as the local one.

Now, however, the manufacturers, who fear the loss of their market share, are on the offensive and "the battle lines are hardening against anyone opposed to pesticide use," he said.

"The industry is ferociously trying to discredit every study that comes out (against pesticide usage)." And, he pointed out, while manufacturers will often refute claims by presenting their own studies, "you may get 95 per cent of the data but it isn't the five per cent that you really want to see.

The physician said that if the public understands that the main objective of companies is to get a "patentable product," then "they will understand where the manufacturers are coming from."

But, he noted, "the changes (in society) are so broad and complex and the final result for society is so unknown that no one can take any action without knowing what the long term impact is going to be on the environment."

Well, Mr. Helliker, William Pitt once said in a speech to the House of Commons that: "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." There is no necessity to continue to use your "registered" POISONS. I have posted a free pest control book on the web that uses safe and far more effective alternatives, it is entitled: THE BUG STOPS HERE. You can download it for free at: http://www.thebestcontrol.com. Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten

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