Pesticide talk Tuesday
October 11, 2010
Dr. Catherine Karr, director of the Northwest Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit at the University of Washington, will speak in Ashland on Tuesday on the health effects of pesticide exposure to children.
The talk is one of a series of meetings sponsored by the Rogue Group Sierra Club on the impact of pesticides on human health, especially pregnant women and children. The next three meetings will be held on Tuesdays in October, starting at 7 p.m. at the Headwaters Environmental Center, 84 Fourth St., Ashland.
The series is in response to concerns raised by the Ashland Parks and Recreation Department’s use of pesticides in parks and other locations and the city’s use of pesticides at its wastewater treatment plant.
Those concerns prompted the Parks Department to post areas where they will be spraying. But the local Sierra Club group wants the city to eliminate its use.
The meetings will feature two women who have done extensive research on the impact of pesticides on women who are pregnant and children. In addition to Karr’s talk, on Oct. 19, Bonnie Nedrow, an Ashland naturopath, will discuss the connection between pesticide exposure and reduced fertility in men and women.
The series will also include two films. On Oct. 26, the Sierra Club will show “A Chemical Reaction,” a movie that shows how a town in Canada banned pesticides outright. A second film, which will be aired at a time to be announced, is “Living Downstream,” the story of Sandra Steingraber’s personal struggle with cancer and her work linking pesticides and other chemicals with cancer.
— Staff reports
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