HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0489.451 2018-2020 3
From: Sherilyn Wells
To: Council Testimony
Subject: In support of Bill 101 regarding pesticide use
Date: Monday,October 14,2019 11:49:36 PM
Aloha Council Members,
I am a resident of Waikoloa and a former Board Member of the Washington State Toxics
Coalition, a position which served to educate me extensively on the issues of pesticide
impacts. Given the recent court decisions rendered against one pesticide in particular-
glyphosateJRoundup (and Monsanto, now absorbed into Bayer), it would be prudent strictly
from a legal standpoint to minimize future County exposure to the fiscal drift from these
types of cases. Today it's Roundup in the legal crosshairs,,tomorrow it's the next pesticide
revealed to be disassembling the web of life (e.g., the decimation of our pollinators, our bees).
How many lawsuits and millions of dollars are you prepared to lose,fighting for a type of
product that most countries in the world have begun to ban, especially when there are many
viable alternatives?
And that comment doesn't even begin to address the issue of appropriate ethical concern for
the impacts to the web of life, whether human, animal, fish, marine mammal, etc.
One thing these legal cases are demonstrating is how often our regulatory agencies, charged
with protecting public health and safety, have been compromised and allowed faulty products
into the marketplace (a revolving door between government service and employment with
private companies being one source of that conflict of interest). Whistleblowers have revealed
not just error, but sometimes an outright intent to defraud, misrepresent, and endanger the
public.
Another finding is how deficient the "safe minimum exposures" turn out to be, especially
when one considers cumulative additive and synergistic effects, none of which have ever
been successfully replicated in a laboratory environment, given the thousands of chemicals
which can be interacting in a "natural" or urban setting.
These issues are one thing that led me into doing public interest environmental litigation for
several years, as the standard of"prove safety first" for allowing new products into the public
domain was set aside in favor of"first prove harm" by governments not adhering to their
primary responsibility-the protection of public health and safety. The result of this misplaced
focus is a global population of guinea pigs... with long-term impacts sometimes requiring
many years to emerge, by which time many lives have been irreparably damaged.
I know that you will likely have lots of detailed, scientifically-based testimony from concerned
experts/scientists, so I restrict my comments to this more general type for now: Please support
Bill 101 and restrict the spraying of toxic pesticides in our Hawaii County Parks and
Roadways.
Sincerely,
Sherilyn Wells
68-1921 Lina Poepoe St
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Waikoloa, Hawaii 96738