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Emergency Meeting about Pesticide Spraying Tonight

Please attend a meeting tonight at Water’s School regarding the spraying of toxic pesticides on our schools, homes, families, and city. We will discuss what action we can take to protest and stop the spraying.
Let’s stop the toxic pesticide spraying!
Important Community Meeting Tonight

Water’s School Community Garden
4540 N. Campbell (1 block north of Montrose, 2 blocks west of Western Ave)
Monday, August 08, 2005 at 5:45 P.M.

Please attend a meeting tonight at Water’s School regarding the spraying of toxic pesticides on our schools, homes, families, and city. We will discuss what action we can take to protest and stop the spraying.

Tonight, trucks will spray a toxic chemical on our neighborhood. It is the chemical, Anvil. Anvil is sprayed because it kills mosquitoes on contact; however, it does much more than that.
• Suspected link to breast cancer. A study indicates it disrupts the endocrine system in a way that may cause breast cancer in women and lowered sperm counts in men. More studies are needed, however, they sprayed Anvil on the whole city last week.
• Inhaling can cause difficulty breathing, delayed long-term neurotoxic effects, rashes, itching or blisters, nausea, vomiting, and chest pain.
• Young children, seniors and people with asthma are most at risk from exposure.
• Anvil is highly toxic to bees and fish. Other effects have not been fully studied.
• The city warns us to close our windows, but many people cannot or do not hear the message.

We believe that there are many methods to prevent West Nile which are less toxic. We do not believe that we have to poison ourselves to protect ourselves from this disease. The Safer Pest Control Project has established guidelines for preventing mosquito breeding. They involve eliminating breeding sites and other methods.

For more information, please call:
Pete Leki 773 463-8968 or
Julie Peterson 773 588-2778

Or read below:
Hey Friends,
I don't know how others feel, but I am dismayed that
in the year 2005, without warning or permission or
public comment, the City is spraying an aerosol poison
into the air over the entire city with the aim of
killing mosquitoes that might carry WN virus. I don't
know anything about the poison, called Anvil, by the
chemical company that markets it, except that it does
not exist in nature, its long term effects are
unknown. It is a poison, so that people are
instructed, in this drought and heat wave, to sleep
with their windows closed, to take children's toys
inside, so they don't get covered with it. But every
tomato in our "organic gardens", every berry and grape
and carrot, every cricket, butterfly and cicada every
perched bird and squirrel...will be doused with it.
What are they thinking?
Can anyone justify taking the chance that a child
will inhale a lungful of this poison, or suck on
fingers that just brushed against a sprayed shrub or
lawn. Would you take the risk when West Nile can also
be countered with culture methods like long sleeves,
local repellants, education and such.
Anyway, I intend to sit down in the path of that truck
and not allow the poison truck to pass into my
neighborhood again. Hopefully the city will agree and
decide it is not worth it to force this poison down
our throats and agree to leave us alone.
I will be talking to others from around the City to
organize a press conference and try to negotiate a
stop to the poisoning of our community.
If you have ideas or suggestions, Please call me at
463-8968.
Time is running out.
Pete


Monday, August 1, 2005
The city blankets the people with pesticides without debate, without notice.
Below is a letter to the editor written by one of our organizers:
"I just received an automated call to let me know that my neighborhood will
be sprayed with pesticide Monday night. I should bring in any pets,
children's toys, close my windows, and stay inside, but that the pesticide
is approved by the EPA. I am concerned. We remember DDT. We know that many
pesticides are approved by the EPA and later found to cancer-causing. Many
chemicals approved in the U.S. are considered to be carcinogens by other
countries with more strict testing standards. We wonder why we have so much
cancer, autism and other health issues occur, but continue to expose
ourselves, our children, and pregnant women to chemicals such as this.
Do you want them to spray this chemical on your vegetable garden? Do you want this chemical tracked into your home or on the hands of you or your children
as they play in the grass the next day?
We all appreciate the good work of the Department of Health and the real
concern that West Nile may become a larger threat, however, let us not blanket our city with chemicals without public debate. Shouldn't we worry about the effects of the pesticide on all the
people, already struggling with the poor air quality of these 90 degree days
and nights, those who don't get the message, and that, still, 50 years after DDT, our city officials still haven't learned the lesson that our high school students know. "
Hopefully, we can change the process so in the future, our fears of west nile don't make us lose our senses and douse our city with unidentified chemicals without debate or notice.
Please contact the media, your alderman, and talk about it.
Julie Peterson.
Julie (at) BeyondToday.com

More information:

www.beyondpesticides.org/

The Safer Pest Control Project is dedicated to reducing the health risks and environmental impacts of pesticides and promoting safer alternatives in Illinois. www.spcpweb.org/
 
 

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