Warren Bell suggests that tripping hazards are of no concern (What about the precautionary priciple?)
Warren Bell also suggests that cosmetic use of pesticides is a major cause of Cancer (Which the precautionary principle is refered to)
Literature on a real link between pesticides and Cancer is non existent, there is no growing body of evidence.
Lets slam the industry (Lorne Hepworth) is Warren Bells goal.
In the October 13th issue of the Daily Townsman, Lorne Hepworth, president of Croplife Canada, the pesticide industry’s lobby group, argues against eliminating the use of the industry’s products on school grounds. He does so in an extraordinary flight of fancy, citing, among other things, imaginary dangers to children resulting from ‘tripping and injuring themselves” in playing fields “overtaken by weeds or severely damaged by insects”.
Our organization, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, conducted a survey of the medical and sports literature several years ago, and found only one reference to injuries caused by poor playing field maintenance. That was a study carried out 26 years ago at Pennsylvania State University, in which injuries were associated with a loss of turf cover, and nothing else. Weeds were not mentioned once, nor were pesticides.
Mr. Hepworth is paid a hefty salary to relentlessly advocate for measures that enhance the bottom line of the pesticide manufacturing and deployment industries. He does not deviate from this position, because he would lose his job if he did.
The weight of scientific evidence links pesticide use to an expanding range of serious illnesses, especially non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a white blood cell cancer, and Parkinson’s disease, a condition affecting the brain and causing major impairment of mobility and function, and sometimes death. Pesticide use is also associated with a host of other cancers and nervous system diseases, as well as abnormal hormone effects and birth defects and developmental disorders in children.
Pesticides have no place in school yards and on the fields where children play sports. There are many safer, less ecologically destructive alternatives.
Sincerely,
Warren Bell MD
Pesticide use | Letters | Cranbrook Daily Townsman, Cranbrook, BC.
