ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ

There have been over 7,000 studies on Atrazine and even Syngenta representative, Mark Phillipson, could not answer whether or not the pesticide is safe.

Atrazine, like other restricted use pesticides (RUP) still in use in Hawaii, has been banned in dozens of countries, including the European Union and has been linked to birth defects, delayed development and increases the risk of preterm delivery, and ground water contamination.

The EPA regulates RUP and reviews the data provided by the RUP producers and worldwide independent research if necessary. RUP are used by state agencies to clean our water from harmful bacteria or to aid in the removal of invasive plants. They are also used by a handful of large agrichemical operations like Monsanto, Dow Chemical, and Syngenta.

Because agrichemical companies are creating the pesticides of the future, they have been known to mix pesticides (RUP and general use pesticides) to develop the next best product. These pesticides may have been proven safe by the EPA, if applied correctly, on their own but their research does not apply once various chemicals are applied at once.

Furthermore, because of the diversity of winds, soils, climates, and endangered endemic species of Hawaii, it is almost impossible to set a one-size-fits-all regulatory system for RUP use. When mixed, some chemical reactions may be benign while others could be more harmful than two pesticides on their own. The Department of Agriculture has on record that some agrichemical companies have purchased up to , which can create thousands of mixed possibilities that have never been proven safe or properly regulated.

This is not an agricultural issue, it is a health issue.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have both urged their members to advocate for government policy changes to identify and reduce exposure to toxic environmental agents including general use and restricted use pesticides. They concluded that the  over the last 15 years show that pesticide exposure to men is associated with poor semen quality, sterility and prostate cancer and in women it is interferes with puberty, menstruation an ovulation, fertility, and menopause.

The studies conducted by AAP and ACOG are just the tip of the iceberg. Researchers from The National Institutes of Health, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been conducting the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a prospective study of cancer and other health outcomes in a cohort of licensed pesticide applicators and their partners since 1993. Farmers who are generally non-smoking and physically active have lower risks of cancers than the general populations but specific, rare cancers and diseases are cropping up in our farming communities that are .

This is what concerns residents who live just yards from these operations and why they would like the authority to create buffer zones around schools and hospitals to protect their most vulnerable populations and disclosure of what is being sprayed so that doctors and nurses can better serve those affected.

Grassroots groups across the counties have been working for years to get their counties and state to protect them from unnecessary harm and to have these chemical companies disclose when and what they are spraying so that doctors and nurses could better diagnose and treat the symptoms of their patients.

The counties of Hawaii, Kauai and Maui successfully led efforts to regulate pesticide use until the operations are proven safe, only to be sued in court. Two court decisions came to the conclusion that it was the state, not the county’s responsibility to regulate.

, a measure to disclose pesticide use which passed in the Senate Ways and Means Committee and should move to the House this week week, is a start but more protections are necessary to protect public health.

that which would have created buffer zones was killed by Rep. Clift Tsuji, Chair of Agriculture.

Hawaii is one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. Darwin would have had a field day here exploring our wide range of endemic plants and birds and unheard of diverse soil make up. Of all 12 soil orders found on Earth, 10 are found along these islands. Each island ranges in age which also provides a unique perspective on evolution.

that pre Western contact the islands could produce enough food for over one million people; currently we import over 80 percent of our food.

Today’s methods of farming and pest control include using pesticides, a lot of them. So much so that they are found throughout our waterways. According to the , of 24 statewide water sample sites, 80 percent of them contained Atrazine, a restricted use pesticide (RUP).

Is our unique paradise being compromised?