HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0489.789 2018-2020 .r" HAWAlhh
x�' 1 CENTER FOR
FOOD SAFETY
January 2, 2020
Dear Chair Chung and members of the Hawai'i County Council,
My name is Sylvia Wu and I am a Senior Attorney with the Center for Food Safety (CFS). I am
writing this letter in strong support of the passage of Bill 101. I submit this letter on behalf of
the Hawai'i Center for Food Safety and its 460,000 members nationwide, including 7,800 in the
State of Hawai'i.
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CFS is a national public interest group dedicated to addressing the human health and
environmental impacts of our increased reliance on pesticide use, both in the State of Hawai'i
and nationally. As an attorney for CFS, I have provided legal counsel to pesticide regulations
and legislations around the country, including those that have been proposed in the State of ;•,,
Hawaii.
Hawaii County Has the Authority and Capability to Implement Bill 101.
Mayor Kim's veto letter stated that [t]he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible
for regulating pesticides at the national level" and that"[t]he Department of Agriculture = _
• regulates and enforces pesticide licensing, sale and use at the State level." However, that the
EPA and the State both have authority to regulate pesticide use does not in any way eliminate'
the authority and duty of the County to enact measures over pesticide use by the County on
County lands in order to reduce the impacts of exposure to pesticides on its citizens and its
environment. Indeed, numerous municipalities, recognizing the inadequacies of EPA and their
respective state governments' pesticide regulatory regimes, have enacted similar measures to
reduce or prohibit the uses of toxic pesticides on public, and sometimes even private, lands.
These measures include regulations that prohibit the uses of,glyphosate and other synthetic
pesticides to be phased out under Bill 101.1 The successes of these examples around the
country make clear that Hawai'i County has the authority, as well as the ability to, implement
Bill 101.
Bill 101's Measures Are Reasonable and Well-Supported.
The veto letter also questioned the basis of selecting the twenty-three herbicides to be phased
out under Bill 101. Contrary to the letter's characterization of the selection as "arbitrary,"
1 These counties include but are not limited to Marin County in California,City of Portland in Maine,Montgomery County in
Maryland,City of Chatham in Massachusetts,Minneapolis in Minnesota,and New Paltz City in New York,to name just a few.
NATIONAL,HEADQUARTERS HAWAII OFFICE
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' \\ HAWAII
CENTER FOR
FOOD SAFETY
phasing out these herbicides is well-supported.The twenty-three herbicides were selected
from the most commonly-used non-agricultural pesticides in the U.S.2 Many of the selected
herbicides are also classified as "restricted use" by the EPA, meaning that uses of those
herbicides may cause "unreasonable adverse effects on the environment" when used "without
additional regulatory restrictions."3
The inclusion of glyphosate as one of the herbicides to be phased out under Bill 101 is also well-
supported. As Mayor Kim correctly noted in the veto letter, the International Agency for
Research on Cancer (IARC) has identified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen. Since that
• classification, IRAC has continually responded to efforts by the pesticide industry to discredit
and criticize its scientific process.4 Indeed, many European countries, such as France and
Germany, have taken actions to restrict and phase out the use of glyphosate based on the IARC
finding.5
Similarly, the imposition of additional dry time is well-supported, particularly in light of well-
known incidents pesticide misuse in the State of Hawai'i. Extending the required dry time after
pesticide applications with proper notification will ensure that the public and county workers
are protected against the risk of pesticide exposure.
In sum, Bill 101 proposes a reasonable pesticide phase-out program that can be easily
implemented, and has been implemented by other local governments around the nation. On
behalf of CFS and its members, I strongly urge the County Council to reaffirm its commitment to
public health and safety, and pass this common-sense bill.
Sincerely,
Sylvia Wu
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Senior Attorney, Hawaii Center for Food Safety
2 See EPA,Pesticides Industry Sales and Usage 2008—2012(2017)15,available at
. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-01/documents/pesticides-industry-sales-usage-2016_0.pdf.
See 7 U.S.C.§136a(d)(1)(C).
4 IARC,IARC Response to Criticisms of the Monographs and the Glyphosate Evaluation(January 2018), https://www.iarc.fr/wp-
content/uploads/2018/07/IARC_response_to_criticisms_of_the_Monographs_and_the_glyphosate_evaluation.pdf
5 See,e.g.,Foreign Agric.Serv.,USDA,France:France Announces End of Glyphosate Use by 2021(May 8,2019),
https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/france-france-announces-end-glyphosate-use-2021;Reuters,Germany to Ban Use of
Glyphosate from End of 2023(Sept.4,2019),https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-glyphosate/germany-to-ban-use-of-
glyphosate-from-end-of-2023-sources-idUSKCN1VPOTY.
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS HAWAII OFFICE
660 Pennsylvania.Ave.SE Suite 402 1111 Nuuanu Ave,Suite 210
Washington,G.C.20003 Honolulu,HI 96817
7:202-547-9359 F:202-547-9429 T:808-681-7688 F:808-203-5725
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