Ontario Enviro Minister
Warned About Pesticide Spin
CAPS BULLETIN
Thursday, MARCH 15, 2001
By
JOHN SANKEY
15 March 2001
The Honourable Elizabeth Witmer,
Minister of the Environment
12th Floor 135 St. Clair Ave. W
Toronto, Ontario.
MW IP5
Dear Minister Witmer,
I understand that you will have started to receive a heap of letters
orchestrated by Landscape Ontario, claiming economic devastation if
the use of pesticides in urban areas is reduced.
No one is going to want to stop landscaping services just because
pesticides are restricted! In fact, the opposite is true - IPM is
more complex than 'spray and forget', so there will be more demand
for expert services, not less. Their protest is not based upon fact.
| "I ask you to reject the advice
of people who wish to make a living on the backs of my family's
health." |
As a parent, recently a grandparent, I ask you to reject the advice
of people who wish to make a living on the backs of my family's
health. I know that, as Minister of Health, you were all too aware of
the problems funding the explosion of health problems that we are
seeing in Canada's urban areas - asthma and non-IgE allergies in
particular. I ask you to consult with your colleague, the Minister of
Education, concerning the greatly increased numbers of children who
have learning disabilities, and the resulting saturation of
diagnostic services and special facilities for them. Both these
effects have now been linked to the use of pesticides in general
around children.
|
| "We need to reduce the use of toxic substances of all sorts where our
children grow up." |
We need to reduce the use of toxic substances of all sorts where our
children grow up. I submit that the best place to do this is at the
municipal level where the usage actually occurs, not by blanket
measures that hit our agriculture and forest productivity as well,
but on the basis of human health.
I ask you to take the lead on this issue, by removing the untenable
provisions of The Pesticides Act that grant immunity to anyone who
follows the label on a pesticide even when the label provisions are
inappropriate. I also ask you to remove the provision of that Act
that is held to prohibit more stringent standards being applied in
urban areas than for the province as a whole. I ask you to encourage
your colleague, the new Minister of Health, to strengthen the
provisions of The Health Protection and Promotion Act that give
Medical Officers of Health authority over public health issues, and
to encourage your colleague, the Minister of Municipal Affairs, to
strengthen the portion of The Municipal Act that gives Ontario
municipalities the general power to protect the health of their
residents.
The health and education of my family is the most important things in
the world to me. Please help me to help them.
Yours truly,
John Sankey
Ottawa ON
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