HONOLULU — Lorna Cummings Poe was one Kauai resident who testified at a state hearing Tuesday for a bill relating to pesticides and schools. The bill would create a pilot program establishing buffer zones around five Hawaii schools within a
HONOLULU — Lorna Cummings Poe was one Kauai resident who testified at a state hearing Tuesday for a bill relating to pesticides and schools.
The bill would create a pilot program establishing buffer zones around five Hawaii schools within a specified radius of commercial agriculture companies that restricted use pesticides.
The House Committees on Agriculture and Energy and Environmental Protection heard a dozen oral testimonies and received about 400 written testimonies on House Bill 2564.
“The number of people who suffer from physical ailments on the west side of Kauai is astounding,” Poe said.
Poe, testifying on behalf of her daughter Malia Chun, told the story of her granddaughters, who live in Kekaha. She said they suffer from frequent headaches, bloody noses, and respiratory infections that she attributes to restricted use pesticides sprayed in nearby fields.
Poe said hair samples were taken from both granddaughters. The samples came back and showed exposure to 36 different pesticides.
Parents have flooded Hawaii lawmakers with testimony demanding buffer zones around schools in order to protect their children from chemicals found in pesticides.
The committees deferred making a decision on the bill until their next meeting on Feb 16.
Ashley Lukens, director of the Hawaii Center for Food Safety, testified at the hearing because the organization was worried the committees would try and insert a right to farm amendment that would preempt counties from having authority to regulate pesticides.
“Generally, it would strip the county’s authority to regulate agriculture pesticides and negate any efforts made thus far,” said Dayna Hakeem, program director for Hawaii Center for Food Safety. “Our goal was to stop that.”
The committees never got to that part of the discussion, however.
Representatives from major agricultural companies like Monsanto and DuPont testified against the bill.
“Seed is the number one sector in agriculture in Hawaii, and Monsanto is the largest seed company in the state. So I’m assuming we’re not one of those large-scale outdoor commercial operations you’re talking about,” said John Purcell, vice president of Monsanto Hawaii. “We account for less than 1 percent … of the RUPs (restricted use pesticides) that were sold…so let’s provide some context of how much pesticides we’re actually using.”
After the hearing, Bennette Misalucha, executive director of the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, told TGI the bill, though “well intended, impacts other farmers at a time when agriculture is already faced with so many challenges.”
“The bill assigns arbitrary restrictions and conditions that go far beyond science-based regulations,” Misalucha said. “The EPA already evaluates and registers pesticides to ensure that they will not harm people, non-target species, or the environment.”
Misalucha said the bill ignores the “fact that there has not been a single instance of agricultural drift to schools in Hawaii, as reported by a recent joint finding by the Department of Agriculture.”
The Department of Agriculture is also opposed to the bill. Representatives from the department said their position is that pesticides are already well regulated.
“Any new and draconian requirement, especially one that requires valuable farmland to be taken out of production, must be warranted and applied equitably to all pesticide users, not just agricultural users,” Misalucha said.
In her testimony, Lukens urged compromise to find a safe solution for everyone.
“People are concerned about pesticide exposure and it’s the state’s responsibility to do something about that,” Lukens said. “We have to work together.”
•••
The Associated Press contributed to this report
