HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0489.534 2018-2020 From: Diane Koerner
To: Council Testimony
n11)
'=l { g'r '1
Subject: Mahalo for supporting Bill 101 on November 20th t
Date: Sunday,November 17,2019 2:18:24 PM
Aloha Honorable County of Hawaii Council Members,
Thank you for voting in favor of Bill 101 to limit the County's use of chemical herbicides.
What are those opposed to the bill fear?The cost. The notion that the county cannot afford
alternatives to spraying chemical herbicides has proven false time and again. Efforts to `green'
Hawaii's parks and roadsides began in the 1990's with five trial oceanfront parks in Hilo and
20 miles of roads around the island. They were manually maintained, which required some
volunteer help in the beginning, but cost no more in the long run. (You can watch short videos
on the results at http://www.GreenerHawaii.com ).
George Yoshida, then Director of Parks & Recreation, said in a video after the 5-year trial
ended, "...herbicide-free parks have proved to be affordable, especially considering the money
saved on purchasing and applying herbicides." Workers interviewed said they were a little
worried about "change" in the beginning, but liked the new"environmentally-safe" approach.
I have been working on the issue of alternatives to pesticides/herbicides since the 1990's when
I moved to Hawaii and was asked to shoot videos for community access television of the
successful 5-year No Spray trials. These videos helped demonstrate that greener, safer public
spaces were quite doable, and state legislators passed an herbicide-reduction bill.
Unfortunately, it was vetoed by Gov. Cayetano after he was lobbied by Monsanto!
So now we're back to having the Big Island lead the way in showing everyone in the state that
there are many options that can be successfully used rather than chemical herbicides.
Broadcast spraying of all the roadsides and weedy areas in parks may seem like the easiest
solution, but it is not the smartest. In the last two years, Greener Hawaii's "Friends of the Park"
volunteers have demonstrated, at parks around the island in different climate zones, that safer
alternatives can be used.... from mechanical maintenance to spraying with organic weed killers
' like Avenger Optima, to planting and letting native groundcovers grow in, mulching and
putting down weed barriers, flame and steam weeding, and even pouring household vinegar on
gravel walking paths. More and more options will become available as Monsanto loses more
and more lawsuits associated with the health dangers of using Roundup. -
The safety of glyphosate herbicides (Roundup is the most common brand name) and others
used by the county became a much-discussed topic after this summer's visit to Hawaii by
Dewayne Lee Johnson. He won the first lawsuit against Monsanto after contracting non-
Hodgkins lymphoma from exposure to glyphosate as a school groundskeeper. He spoke at a
community meeting in Oahu voicing concerns about the use of herbicides and pesticides by
the DOE. Afterwards, Board of Education superintendent Christina Kishimoto announced an
immediate halt to use of chemical pesticides and herbicides on Hawaii school campuses.
Children have unique susceptibilities to the potential toxicity of herbicides, yet they are still
being exposed every day when they go to county parks or walk or ride along the roads.
"Evidence demonstrates associations between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric
cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems," according to the Americana ��4
Comm. Na. I
Ref. To: P'N 2 0s Z019
Ref. Date
Academy of Pediatrics.
Acute symptoms of exposure to glyphosate include eye irritation, burning eyes, blurred vision,
skin rashes, burning or itchy skin, nausea, sore throat, asthma and difficulty breathing,
headache, lethargy, nose bleeds, and dizziness. I myself have to wear a mask and have oxygen
in the car just in case I'm driving on a road recently sprayed. I get acute symptoms - migraines
and dizziness -not good when you are driving to say the least!
I've seen members of sports teams (many children in Hawaii are asthmatic) being taken to the
ER when they show up to play on a field just sprayed (it takes 12 days for Roundup-sprayed
weeds to turn brown, so there's no heads up during that time). I was thrilled to learn from 3C
Goat Grazing that they successfully groomed a soccer field in Hilo and were praised by the
Parks Department, and even more thrilled that the Department has already committed to
working with Beyond Pesticides to get to the root issue of the weed problem at four parks on
the island with large playing fields.
Long-term exposure to glyphosate is linked with increased risks of cancer including non-
Hodgkin's lymphoma, miscarriages, attention deficit disorder and reduced production of sex
hormones, and can trigger aggressive breast cancer when combined with other risk factors. At
the last County Council meeting, Matt Kaneali'i-Kleinfelder brought up how glyphosate
harmed bees. Researching this, I found a study in Science journal from Sept. 2018, that
summarized: "Glyphosate appears to disrupt the microbial community in the bees' digestive
system, making them more vulnerable to infection. The discovery adds another potential
reason for the alarming decline of honey bees in parts of the world, as well as that of other
pollinators that live in colonies, such as bumble bees."
One last thing I wanted to mention is the issue of golf courses. Two of my best friends who
were avid golfer died in their 60's of cancer. I did some more research and found that even
golf courses be maintained without chemical herbicides... on Martha's Vineyard in
Massachusetts, Vineyard Golf Club is an all-organic golf course and it is beautiful. Only
composted fertilizers are used. In place of herbicides, weeds are killed with boiling water and
a natural foam cocktail. Moss is removed with kitchen dish detergent. Microscopic worms are
used to attack turf-ruining grubs.
Solutions such as"these will be uncovered by the Vegetation Management Transition
Committee who will assist county staff in determining the most effective and efficient non-
toxic weed management practices over the next four years.
Thank you for supporting Bill 101 in the first reading, and thank you in advance for voting it
into law this Wednesday.
Mahalo nui loa,
Diane Koerner, representing Greener Hawaii (an environmental group of over 800 members)
Displaced by the lava in Kapoho, now living in Kapaa, HI