Letters for Jan. 24, 2016

Letters for Jan. 24, 2016

Only more roads will improve traffic flow

Every time I find myself having to come to Lihue from the Westside in the early morning hours, I find that what normally takes me a 20-minute drive from Hanapepe, can take up to an hour. This is mostly because of the heavy traffic going to work and school and the bottlenecks caused by poorly regulated merges coming into Kalaheo and at the tunnel of trees.

I’m sure that people coming in from the Eastside have similar difficulties, even with the wasteful use of county employees putting down and taking up cones every day for counter-flowing traffic between Kapaa and Lihue. The only other attempts to deal with these traffic problems in my mind have been the addition of poorly placed and little used bypasses, and the addition of more sidewalks and bike lanes in Lihue itself (an example of which is the much ballyhooed TIGER grant which does nothing to deal with the real traffic problems here on Kauai).

In addition to applying for this grant to add sidewalks and bike lanes where they really aren’t needed, I wonder how many consultants we taxpayers have had to pay to develop strategies for dealing with heavy traffic on our island, only to find that they had been prohibited from considering the addition of any lanes to current roads or adding roads in general.

Predictably, every study comes up with the same suggestions: more buses, more sidewalks and more bike paths. In the 10 years I’ve lived on Kauai, I have seen many recreational bicyclists on the narrow and dangerous roads outside of Lihue where there are no sidewalks or bike lanes, but have never seen and can’t imagine anyone biking the 10-plus miles to work in the morning from either the Eastside or Westside. The few bikers I have seen in Lihue have all been using the sidewalks and I have never seen anyone using the newly developed bike lanes.

It’s time that the county bites the bullet and admits that what’s really needed to relieve traffic congestion here on Kauai is the adding of more lanes to our current roads and the addition of bypasses where they would really do some good and actually be used!

Larry Bergh

Hanapepe

Learn the facts about glyphosate

Will it be the children that lead the way to a healthy future for them and their children? Rita Kumar is a community hero and opened the door to the testing of glyphosate in our locally grown food. Are you ready for the RoundUp Ready Facts?

Over the years, a large body of independent research has accumulated and now collectively provides a sound scientific rationale to confirm that glyphosate is far more toxic and poses more serious health risks to animals and humans than Monsanto and the U.S. government admit. Among the many diseases and health conditions non-industry studies identified: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and autism since Roundup has been shown to instigate aluminum accumulation in the brain.

The herbicide has been responsible for reproductive problems such as infertility, miscarriages, and neural tube and birth defects. It is a causal agent for a variety of cancers: brain, breast, prostate, lung and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Other disorders include chronic kidney and liver diseases, diabetes, heart disease, hypothyroidism and leaky gut syndrome.

In addition to lung cancer, glyphosate may be responsible for today’s growing epidemics of chronic respiratory illnesses among farm workers and their families.

Roundup sprayed on corn and soybeans fed to farm animals also makes them sick. Roundup is freely sprayed islandwide by the agricultural companies, landscaping companies, the state, the county, the water department, neighbors and friends. What can we do while the children, elderly, pets, food and wildlife continue to be poisoned and lawmakers remain unaccountable? If 160 countries have banned it, when are all these spray guns going to stop firing on Kauai?

And, if the leaders and community members decide to stop using it, what will happen to the huge storage of this chemical waste kept here on the island? Perhaps the children will know what to do with it?

Diana LaBedz

Waimea