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In This Issue: • Santa Clara County Residents Push for Toxic Cleanup• Legislators Agree To Protect Children and Seniors• Organic Sounds: New Campaign And A Sacramento Celebration • Spotlight: The Playing Fields Protector• “No More Fogging” Say Santa Clara County Residents• Teens Turning Green

Pesticide Watch1107 9th Street, Suite 601Sacramento, CA 95814www.pesticidewatch.org

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CREDITS Editor: Paul Schramski Towers. Contributors: Paul Schramski Towers, Elizabeth Martin-Craig and Sara Landis. Photos: Kirk Vartan (1) Karen Medders (2) Jennifer Ringewald (3) Lisa Wertheim (4). Design: Erica Wong and Public Interest GRFX (215) 985-1113. This newsletter is the update for members of Pesticide Watch and Pesticide Watch Education Fund. Contact us at (916) 551-1883 or at info@pesticidewatch.org, or at the address below for more information. Printed on recycled paper.

It means something to us at Pesticide Watch that 2008 was the year of the community orga-nizer. Whatever you feel about our current President, he was, like all of our staff, a community organizer at one point in his life. So, it’s fitting that this spring we are celebrating another com-munity organizer and one of our movement’s greatest he-roes: Cesar Chavez. Chavez suc-cessfully campaigned for basic human rights for farm workers and to reduce the use of toxic pesticides in our communities.

At its heart, community orga-nizing is about bringing people together, in solidarity, to take on challenges, make their voic-es heard, and overcome their opposition. And now, more than ever, we need to organize our communities to create pes-ticide protection zones around schools and senior centers and to clean up polluted places, which you will read about in the following pages.

Consider our new president’s words “Yes We Can”, Chavez’s legacy “Si Se Puede”, and get involved in campaigns to re-duce toxic pesticides in your backyard and state—become a community organizer.

Sincerely,

Paul Schramski State Director

Santa Clara, CA — The Bay Area Research and Extension Center (BAREC), which began operation in the early 1920s as a University of California agricultural test-ing site, now occupies 17 acres of urban Santa Clara County. Over the past 60 years, research at the station made mass production of strawberries possible, but also involved testing thousands of chemi-cal and pesticides. Unfortunately, decades of agricultural testing has left the land contaminated with a toxic legacy of pesti-cides, including carcinogenic chemicals.

Six years ago, the land went up for sale. If sold, the remaining soil would pose a threat to health of residents, so, neigh-bors formed the group SaveBAREC to protest the sale and privatization of the land and to make sure the land is properly cleaned up. Unfortunately, the group has met resistance from the city, state, and developers.

In June of 2007, more than 300 mem-bers of the community turned out in San Jose on a Wednesday evening to voice opposition to the proposed develop-ment. Their testimony continued until 2:15 AM, but in direct defiance of public sentiment and without deliberation, the city council unanimously voted to allow the development to proceed.

After this setback, SaveBAREC commu-nity members hit the streets in the fall of 2007 and gathered the required 12,000 signatures—in just 3 weeks—to put two referendums on the ballot preserving the area as open space, and ultimate-ly, ensuring its cleanup. Unfortunately, SaveBAREC could not compete with the $1 million that developers spent on ads, cold calling and mailers to convince residents to support the development.

As of this writing, the California Department of Toxic Substances has agreed to clean up only the most toxic hot spots.

Having kept the developers at bay, SaveBAREC members are not giving up. According to SaveBAREC leader Kirk Vartan, “This is really just scratching the surface of the problem. Action must be taken to protect the health of the com-munity to the fullest extent.” Residents are now embarking on a large-scale public re-lations effort to comprehensively clean up the entire area.

“We’ve got a new plan on how to both clean up and preserve this land in order to protect the public health and make it available for the greatest public use,” Said Elizabeth Martin-Craig, a Pesticide Watch organizer working with the group.

Santa Clara County Residents Push for Toxic CleanupA Note to Our Members

SaveBAREC members take to the streets to rally support for their ballot initiatives.

Vol.17 No.2Spring 2009

The Newsletter of Pesticide Watch and the Pesticide Watch Education Fund

Elizabeth Martin-Craig of Pesticide Watch helps lead a discussion with Mark Steffanski of Marin Academy, as well as two teens, tackling toxic products in schools.

Ross, CA — On February 7th, more than 200 junior high and high school students came together for the 4th Annual Teens Turning Green Summit. Pesticide Watch staff have been working with students to develop the Teens for Healthy Schools project, which focuses on using fewer pesticides inside and outside our schools. Half of our nation’s schools have problems linked to indoor air quality, and asthma is the leading cause of school absentee-ism due to chronic illness. Through the project, teens are identifying what toxic products are used in their schools, and working with their administrators to find safer alternatives.

For more information about the project, contact info@teensturninggreen.org

Teens Turning Green

Executive Chef Michael Tuohy of the Grange Restaurant speaks at Organic Sounds: Sacramento, highlighting the need for local food and pesticide-free communities.

Oakland, CA — Last year, East Bay resi-dents were among the many who raised an outcry to proposed aerial pesticide spraying for the light brown apple moth. Through tireless organizing, residents stopped aerial spraying for the moth, one piece of the state’s “eradication” program, and moved their focus to problematic ground pesticide applications.

One of the greatest concerns about pro-posed aerial spraying was the lack of protection for California’s most sensi-tive populations, including children, se-niors and working families. In response, Pesticide Watch joined community orga-nizations to advocate protection zones absent of pesticide spraying around schools, hospitals, and senior centers, among other places.

“We have an ethical responsibility to protect the most vulnerable from pesti-cide poisoning: infants and children, the elderly, and those who are already ill,” said Lynn Elliott-Harding, a registered

Sacramento, CA — In early March, community leaders gathered to honor Pesticide Watch and celebrate emerg-ing efforts to tackle pesticide misuse and increase food security in the Sacramento Valley.

“Sacramento has committed to being a leader in sustainability for the state and nation, and we are proud that organiza-tions like Pesticide Watch are pushing us to get there,” said Sacramento City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond.

More than 3.2 million pounds of pesticides are used in Sacramento County, including thousands of pounds in urban homes, schools, parks and workplaces. Area orga-nizations, including Physicians for Social Responsibility, Mothers’ Support Network and the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op launched Pesticide-Free Sacramento

as a comprehensive effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate pesticide use in the region.

“Sacramentans are challenging the way toxics pesticides are used in their back-yards and finding creative solutions to fix an increasingly broken food system,” said Paul Schramski Towers, state director of Pesticide Watch. “By investing in local food and organic places, we can create a healthier, more vibrant community.”

Organic Sounds: Sacramento was host-ed by Assemblymember Dave Jones, Sacramento City Councilmembers Rob Fong and Lauren Hammond, Martha Guzman Aceves of California Rural Legal Assistance, Rene Guerrero of the Planning and Conservation League and Shamus Roller of the Sacramento Housing Alliance, among others.

— Assemblymember Sandré Swanson

— Sacramento City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond

Aerial pesticide spraying is an outdated and unsafe technology.

Sacramento has committed to being a leader in sustainability for the state and nation.

Legislators Agree To Protect Children And Seniors

Organic Sounds: New Campaign And A Sacramento Celebration

Pesticide Watch

Saratoga, CA — In yet another California community, residents are joining arms and calling on local agencies to stop the prac-tice of fogging for mosquitoes. For years, the Santa Clara County Vector Control District has fogged pesticides to control the spread of West Nile virus. While West Nile virus poses threats to human health, the pesticides used in fogging are also increasingly linked to adverse health ef-fects, especially in pregnant women.

Residents recently formed Community for Environmentally Sound and Natural Alternatives (CESNA) in response to out-dated forms of mosquito management. “Fogging for public health or farming reasons does more harm than good,” said Nancy Jamello, one of the leaders of CESNA. “Mosquito control agencies need to do more to prevent mosquito prob-lems, rather than band-aid solutions like fogging,” she added.

Recent scientific reports indicate that controlling mosquito larvae, rather than adults, through least-toxic methods like direct applications of soaps and oils, is a better alternative. While other reports

Tiburon, CA — In the Fall of 2008, Jennifer Ringewald, a mother new to the Reed Union School District, re-ceived her state-mandated informa-tional flyer about the pesticides that might be used on school grounds during the school year. This surprised and scared her.

“Why am I feeding my children or-ganic produce and letting them play on fields sprayed with pesticides?” she asked.

While reading a Pesticide Watch newsletter, she realized she could get help. She contacted Elizabeth Martin-Craig, community organizer with the San Francisco office of Pesticide Watch. Jennifer soon realized that the effects of spraying on their children concerned many parents at all three

schools in the district. She and other moms soon formed a group, the Reed Parents for Healthy Schools.

Their immediate goal is to, in part-nership with the School Board, form an Integrated Pest Management Committee, on which at least one parent would serve, and through the collaborative process, reduce the use of pesticides.

Longer-term goals include extending the same principles to municipal and county fields and trails, making them pesticide-free as well. “I’m hope-ful that once community leaders understand the effects on our chil-dren and how easy it is to transition to a much lower level of pesticide use, we’ll all be on the same page,” said Ringewald.

The Playing Fields Protector

“No More Fogging” Say Santa Clara County Residents

Jennifer Ringewald and her son stand their ground on the Reed Union playing fields.

Pesticide Watch

Fogging for public health or farming reasons does more harm than good.— Nancy Jamello, CESNA

underscore that fogged pesticides tend to drift, landing on homes, schools and farms, rather than the intended mosqui-toes.

For more information about mosquito fog-ging, visit our website and click the link for the “Overkill” report.

nurse, leader of Stop the Spray - East Bay and a member of the California Nurses Association. “The literature is clear; we must be as well. Our laws must support the science and protect those at greatest risk.”

Over the past two years, East Bay resi-dents descended on Sacramento, as well as Oakland, calling for greater protections from aerial pesticide spraying through meetings, phone calls and letters. Hearing the call from his constituents and across the state, Assemblymember Sandré Swanson, recently took up legislation: the Clean Air for Children, Seniors and Working Families Act. “Aerial pesticide spraying is an outdated and unsafe tech-nology,” he said.

Concerned community organizations are working to advance Mr. Swanson’s legisla-tion, while working through the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and local County Agricultural Commissioners to create as many protection zones as possible for children and seniors.

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