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 EarthCare requests that the Integrated Pest Management be changed to focus
on public health and alternatives
For Immediate Release May 15, 2003
May 15, 2003 (Kelowna. B.C.) The Canadian EarthCare Society is disappointed
with the B.C. Liberal Governments Integrated Pest Management Act recently
introduced into the Legislature with only a few days left in the sitting.
Pesticides are toxic substances, designed to kill, suppress, or interfere
with the life cycle of organisms that have been identified as undesirable.
They are frequently potent chemicals with a very real potential to harm
human health and the environment, and as such they have been heavily
regulated in B.C. and Canada.
This new Act does not focus on the requirement that pesticides ‘only be
used as a last resort. In fact, it allows the use of pesticides in a
greater deregulated manner than the old Pesticide Control Act did. The new
Act will allow industry, local government, forest companies etc, to develop
Pest Management Plans that may not even be looked at by the Provincial
Government. This system will stop government from preventing harm from
pesticides before exposure occurs, says Lloyd Manchester, Senior Policy Advisor
for the Canadian EarthCare Society, based out of Kelowna, B.C.
Government has just given itself wide sweeping powers that allow them to
suspend the Act in whole or part, not allow the public to appeal pest
management plans, and pass laws not allowing municipalities to pass bylaws
regulating pesticides, Manchester says.
The permit system is also being changed to allow the use of high risk
pesticides without a permit. The Act also allows government to exempt
pesticides from government regulation without any requirement for safety
evaluations of exempted pesticides.
This Act should be re-written to focus on the publics right to know when,
where and why pesticides are being used, as well as using the precautionary
principle to ensure the publics health is protected, Manchester says.
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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