• Can’t believe we’re debating pesticides • Where are all the bed and breakfasts? • Farming is fine • Dog barking law will divide community • Raising minimum wage a bad idea Can’t believe we’re debating pesticides I keep seeing
• Can’t believe we’re debating pesticides • Where are all the bed and breakfasts? • Farming is fine • Dog barking law will divide community • Raising minimum wage a bad idea
Can’t believe we’re debating pesticides
I keep seeing it stated in this forum that people in favor of Bill 2491 are antiscience and even ecoterrorists. I would like to bring this debate back to the science concerning pesticides. The American Academy of Pediatrics represents most of the board certified pediatricians in America. They convene experts to write technical reports and then policy positions which most pediatricians in America, if not the world, accept as standards of care.
Their most sweeping publications on pesticides were published about 10 months ago. One was a 20-page technical report with 195 scientific references and the second was a much shorter policy statement with 33 references. The opening sentence in the introduction of the policy statement is: “Pesticides represent a large group of products designed to kill living organisms from insects to rodents to unwanted plants … making them inherently toxic. Beyond acute poisoning the influences of low level exposures on child health are of increasing concern.”
They go on to say, “reducing problematic exposures will require attention to current inadequacies in medical training, public health tracking, and regulatory action on pesticides.”
They address the sources of this pesticide exposure as the food we eat, spraying in our houses and yards, drift from agricultural spraying and coming home on the clothes and footwear of agricultural workers.
In their section on solutions, they suggest that pediatricians learn more about pesticide effects. They suggest pediatricians join grassroots efforts to address the problems with pesticides and they quite clearly list buffer zones for spraying, the right to know, and better studies concerning the effects of pesticides as positive steps.
I am positive that we will look back 10 years from now and wonder how we could have even debated the issues. Of course we should have buffer zones, the right to know, and better studies. I remain very puzzled why anybody would be against such measures.
Lee A. Evslin, M.D.
Board certified pediatrician
Kapaa
Where are all the bed and breakfasts?
Good morning. We are just your average to higher end visitors. We came last year and stayed for a week at a B&B, another week at our timeshare.
In planning this year’s trip, we find most and possibly all (not done looking but getting frustrated) B&Bs are now closed due to something going on with them and the county planning office or new county rules?
The market for visitor housing has just been significantly narrowed, and our experiences at B&Bs are so different, unique and valued compared to the commercial hotel/timeshare experience that we are now going to look at other islands and will have to spend a day making the island hop. Very unhappy. Big problem.
Your island has a deserved reputation for a more relaxed, garden-like, “back-forest” experience, but this move forces us to other islands to gain that wonderful feeling not available in the condo at the beach, and apparently no longer available on Kauai. You used to have wonderful B&Bs but what happened? We hope you can fix this soon!
David Rohrdanz MD
Leslie Rohrdanz OT
Sacramento, Calif.
Farming is fine
I’m so tired of hearing “right to farm” as an excuse. Nobody is trying to stop farming, it’s the opposite! Go farm! Go grow food! Just don’t spray a ton of cancer-causing pesticides all over the place!
Got it?
Jenny Stewart
Hanalei
Dog barking law will divide community
Recent comments and testimony on the dog-barking law promote the false notion that noise ordinances exclude animal issues. They do not.
Hawaii state law has a detailed noise ordinance designed to cover a multitude of sins, such a loud parties, blaring music from boom boxes or noisy machinery. The law sets different standards for time of day and rural areas.
The comments at a recent hearing took on a rift between locals and transplants. Kauai’s rural nature was mentioned. The comments of some of the supporters indicated the matter would be better served by stricter animal abuse laws.
I fear the proposed law will heighten community polarization, which harms our communities.
Suzanne Woodruff
Kapaa
Raising minimum wage a bad idea
When it comes to raising the minimum wage, the governor is taking advantage of the public’s ignorance of economics 101. On the surface, raising the minimum wage may seem like a compassionate action. After all, people in Hawaii can’t live on $7.25 an hour so maybe they can live on some $8.75 an hour? Raising the minimum wage hurts workers, raises unemployment and increases inflation.
The low-wage jobs are like the first rung on the ladder. Those entry-level, low-wage jobs are very important because they make it easier for people to work their way up to that next rung. Based on the governor’s logic, why not just raise the minimum wage to $20? The result, you would see all the fast food restaurants shut down. You would see increases in crime, homelessness and inflation. Lowering, or better yet, eliminating the minimum wage would have the polar opposite effect.
Michael Newgent
Kapaa
