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 EarthCare applauds School District 23 for placing moratorium on Pesticide Use
For Immediate Release Mar 27, 2003
March 27, 2003 (Kelowna. B.C.) The Canadian EarthCare Society has applauded
the School District 23 Board of Trustees for placing a moratorium on the use
of pesticides and requesting a report from school board staff on
alternatives to pesticide to use on school grounds.
The Board and School District has taken a major step forward to protect the
health of school children in this community. Exercising the precautionary
principle (do not act without reasonable proof of harmlessness) is a prudent
action to be taken by the School Board, says Lloyd Manchester, Senior
Policy Advisor for the Canadian EarthCare Society, based out of Kelowna,
B.C. EarthCare would be pleased to also help provide Trustees with
information on alternatives, Manchester added, saying EarthCare plans on
making a presentation to the Board of Trustees at the earliest convenience
of both parties.
There is no longer any question about whether or not pesticides are
poisons, and no person of any credibility would have the audacity to call
them safe. We have to look no further than The Canadian Association of
Physicians for the Environment for those facts, Manchester suggests. The
CAPE website says, The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates today in
figures that are widely accepted to be underestimates that 200,000 people
are killed worldwide, every year, as a direct result of pesticide poisoning,
up from 30,000 in 1990. The WHO further estimates that at least 3 million
persons are poisoned annually, many are children. A study in England and
Wales demonstrated that 50% of pesticide poisonings involved children under
the age of 10.
According to Manchester, EarthCare will continue to encourage local and
provincial government bodies to follow the lead of School District 23. The
group is also initiating a local right to know campaign that asks
municipal and regional governments to implement procedures ensuring that the
public has a right to know when, where, how and why pesticides are being use
in their community.
For further information contact:
Lloyd Manchester,
Canadian EarthCare Society: (250) 712-9713
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Canadian EarthCare Society
Street Address:
702 Bernard St., Kelowna, B.C. V1Y6P5
E-mail: info@earthcares.org
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