Congress Committee Toxic to School Pesticide Bill

[Guest guest]

(I was sure I posted this in December, but couldn't find it - sorry)

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12133

Congress Committee Toxic to School Pesticide Bill

Lingo, AlterNet

December 20, 2001

Although politicians are jostling to take credit for the new education bill,

there's one deleted part that belongs in their hall of shame. On Friday Nov.

30, the School Environment Protection Act (SEPA) was killed in a joint

House-Senate conference committee. Only one Republican voted for the bill,

which would have required public schools to notify parents about the use of

bug-killing chemicals. The bill also would have required the states to

develop a pest management plan that considers alternatives to toxic sprays

in schools.

Senator Torricelli (D-N.J.) sponsored the legislation and every

Democrat on the committee voted for it, but that wasn't enough when the

majority of Republican House members used their weight to squash the bill.

This issue might be news to most readers, since the story received little

media coverage. The Associated Press and MSNBC did run articles on the vote

but many newspapers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post,

did not. But they did print thousands of words that weekend on the death of

former Beatle on.

I love the Beatles and own all their albums, but hey editors! Don't you

think the death of a bill protecting our children from toxic chemicals is

just as newsworthy as the death of a famous musician?

Advocates of the School Environment Protection Act cited a report by The

National Academy of Sciences concluding that children are among the least

protected population segment against pesticides and, given their smaller

size and still-developing organs, are at higher risk than adults to

pesticide exposure. A National Cancer Institute study indicates that use of

household and garden pesticides can increase the risk of childhood leukemia

as much as seven-fold. And a National Institutes of Health study showed that

between 1973 and 1991 the overall incidence of childhood cancer rose 10

percent and the incidence of children's soft-tissue and brain cancer spread

by 25 percent.

So how could anyone oppose a bill that would make schools notify parents

when pesticides will be used and prohibit use of certain pesticides in any

area that will be used within 24 hours? Money.

Although SEPA was supported by the National Parent-Teacher Association, the

National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers,

committee Republicans were still overcome by the chemical industry's

spending spray.

The Republicans claim the bill was costly and poorly crafted. That's odd,

since a compromise was worked out last summer that even lobbyists for major

manufacturers of pesticides agreed to in a letter to Senate leaders Tom

Daschle and Trent Lott. But since then, the pesticide industry reneged on

the agreement and lobbied in stealth against the bill, said Jay Feldman,

Executive Director of the non-profit grassroots group Beyond Pesticides,

which supported SEPA.

" This is something which should have had no controversy, " said Sen.

Torricelli. " There are children playing on football fields and students

eating in cafeterias that were sprayed with toxic materials immediately

before they entered the room. " He said there was no explanation for the

defeat of the provision " except the influence of the chemical industry

itself. "

Although the public has been wary of pesticides for at least the four

decades since publication of Carson's " Silent Spring, " it's clear

that pesticide producers still poison politics and prevent us from

protecting our children.

Lingo is a freelance writer based in Lawrence, Kansas. He has been a

frequent contributor to The Kansas City Star and the website TomPaine.com.

He can be reached at franklingo@....