HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0489.395 2018-2020 From: Mary Lacaues
To: Council Testimony
Subject: Testimony in Favor of Bill 101
Date: Tuesday,November 05,2019 8:36:04 AM
Aloha Esteemed County of Hawai'i Councilpersons,
My name is Mary Lacques and I am a resident of Hale'iwa in the City and County of
Honolulu, and a volunteer for Hawai'i SEED, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating
the public about the dangers associated with pesticide use, genetically engineered crop
experimentation, and prompting culturally-based agroecologieal farming practices.
I am writing to encourage you to vote in favor of Bill 101 which would prohibit the use of
toxic pesticides and herbicides on all county-owned parks, roads, bikeways, sidewalks, trails,
drainage ways, and waterways. This 4-year transition period, establishes a Vegetation
Management Transition Committee to guide the conversion to organic practices.
By educating yourselves about the dangers of pesticides and their effects on the environment,
our public spaces and those that inhabit them, you have taken steps to become the leaders in
encouraging the rest of Hawai'i to follow suit. I am especially concerned about our keiki,
whose developing bodies are particularly vulnerable to these scheduled spraying events by our
county and state.
Hawaii SEED is a proud member of the Protect Our Keiki Coalition who sponsored the recent
visit of Dewayne Lee Johnson, who was the first plaintiff to win a lawsuit against Monsanto,
associating his Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma with his use of glyphosate-based produces in the
capacity of his job as a public school groundskeeper.
I applaud the Hawaii County department heads for meeting with Johnson, not only listen to
his personal story but to being open to hearing from experts about non-toxic alternatives that
have already been implemented in maintaining public parks and large hotels on Maui, which
brings to mind the need to not only protect Hawai'i's residents but our visitors as well.
And mahalo for being proactive.in choosing to implement the cost-effective use of goats to
clear brush at the Hilo Soccer Field-a wonderful example for the other Hawaii Counties.
The almost weekly occurrence of studies being published to support the fact that glyphosate in
not only detrimental to human health but to our precious environment can be highlighted in
the fact that a few days ago, the government of Thailand voted to ban not only the herbicide
glyphosate, but paraquat and chlorpyrifos, effective this December. As you probably know,
the state of Hawai'i was the first in the nation to ban the use of chlorpyrifos, followed by New
York and recently California.
This link provides a list of countries and municipalities where glyphosate is banned
https://www.baumhedlundlaw,com/toxic-tort-law/monsanto-roundup-lawsuit/where-is-
g_lyphosate-bannedl
Mahalo in advance for your decision to protect your precious island resources and inhabitants
Comm. o.
Ref. To.PI
Ref. lute 0 6 2019
by voting to pass Bill 101,
Mary Lacques
P.O. Box 14
Hale'iwa, HI 96712