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Letter to SF Board of Education
Here is a letter from Lynn Murphy of Play Not Spray to Mark Sanchez, President of the Attend the SF Unified School District. Please read the bullet points at least about what this can do to our kids, and try to make it to the Board Meeting on May 27th at 6pm.
Board of Education Meeting, and support the "No Aerial Spraying" Resolution.
Tuesday May 27 at 6p.m. (no aerial spraying resolution at 7pm)
Irving G. Breyer Board Meeting Room
555 Franklin St, 1st Floor (McAllister & Fulton)
5/22/08
Introduction
PlaynotSpray represents San Francisco Bay Area parents opposed to the aerial spraying of a biochemical to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM). Our collective concern has arisen out of the fact that the LBAM eradication program has not been proven to be safe, effective, or necessary. We are particularly concerned about the negative short-term health effects and the unknown long-term, multi-generational effects of the inert chemicals to the health of pregnant women, our children and the environment.
The Letter
Dear President Mark Sanchez,
The San Francisco parent communities represented by PlaynotSpray are writing in regards to the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) eradication program initiated by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). We are specifically concerned that the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) lacks any process for a formal post-spray cleanup operation to protect the health of our children. It is also our belief that the parents of the SFUSD should be better informed of the potential adverse effects of the pesticide-pheromone spray. We feel that a formal process for educating parents, as well as the school administration, is especially important for the reasons stated by Dr. Tara Levy who testified at the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) meeting:
* Children are a more vulnerable population to pesticide exposure than adults due to lower body weight, less developed detoxification pathways, and less mature lungs. (see MD letter attached)
* Children go to school early in the morning, often leaving for school only a few hours after the spraying stops. Children may be the first population exposed following each spray.
* Children play outside where playgrounds will be coated by the spray. Some of the spray ingredients are known to be more toxic when they come in contact with water; morning dew and fog on our playgrounds and in our parks may increase the toxic effects experienced by exposed children in the morning. How are playgrounds and play equipment going to be protected?
* Schools rely on attendance for funding. More absenteeism results in less funding from the state. Some children are likely to stay at home during spray periods, either as the result of illness or parental caution. (There is some hypothetical evidence of this from Santa Cruz and Monterey County school districts.)
* Spray particles will be tracked into school facilities on shoes, backpacks, and clothing and will concentrate in classrooms and hallways.
* School healthcare resources may be overburdened. Schools nurses should be educated on signs and symptoms of pesticide-related illnesses, and will need to have protocols in place to manage children who become ill on the days following the spray. Schools without school nurses are especially vulnerable.
- Berkeleydailyplanet.com reader commentary (05/01/08)
According to the CDFA's latest LBAM Action Plan (attached), San Francisco is scheduled to begin aerial spraying October, 2008, with repeated applications every 30-90 days. Each spray session lasts 3-5 days. Low-flying planes will disperse chemical clouds throughout our city, covering everything in our school grounds from playground structures, to grassy and blacktop areas where children sit, to handrails and door handles they touch. Any time our children go outside, their clothes and hands will pick up chemicals. From there, it is a short trip inside their bodies.
It hardly needs to be mentioned that if the CDFA is allowed to spray San Francisco schools, the costs to SFUSD could be intolerable. Either the district will be faced with massive maintenance and overtime costs to cover and clean the outdoor surfaces of every one of more than 140 schools in our city, or SFUSD will face enormous liability costs for children getting sick. Neither option is acceptable, particularly in this time of fiscal scarcity.
We believe that you are committed to doing everything in your power to make sure that the children, whom you are entrusted with caring for, are indeed cared for. We plead with you to take action immediately. Publicly state your opposition to aerial spraying of San Francisco schools. Help us protect our children by creating a plan to inform families and school administration should the CDFA be allowed to continue with their program and ensure us that there will be an action plan for clean-up operations.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Lynn Murphy
PlaynotSpray
www.playnotspray.org
Contact: Lynn Murphy at lynn_kirkpatrick@hotmail.com or info@playnotspray.org
Board of Education Meeting, and support the "No Aerial Spraying" Resolution.
Tuesday May 27 at 6p.m. (no aerial spraying resolution at 7pm)
Irving G. Breyer Board Meeting Room
555 Franklin St, 1st Floor (McAllister & Fulton)
5/22/08
Introduction
PlaynotSpray represents San Francisco Bay Area parents opposed to the aerial spraying of a biochemical to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM). Our collective concern has arisen out of the fact that the LBAM eradication program has not been proven to be safe, effective, or necessary. We are particularly concerned about the negative short-term health effects and the unknown long-term, multi-generational effects of the inert chemicals to the health of pregnant women, our children and the environment.
The Letter
Dear President Mark Sanchez,
The San Francisco parent communities represented by PlaynotSpray are writing in regards to the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) eradication program initiated by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). We are specifically concerned that the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) lacks any process for a formal post-spray cleanup operation to protect the health of our children. It is also our belief that the parents of the SFUSD should be better informed of the potential adverse effects of the pesticide-pheromone spray. We feel that a formal process for educating parents, as well as the school administration, is especially important for the reasons stated by Dr. Tara Levy who testified at the Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) meeting:
* Children are a more vulnerable population to pesticide exposure than adults due to lower body weight, less developed detoxification pathways, and less mature lungs. (see MD letter attached)
* Children go to school early in the morning, often leaving for school only a few hours after the spraying stops. Children may be the first population exposed following each spray.
* Children play outside where playgrounds will be coated by the spray. Some of the spray ingredients are known to be more toxic when they come in contact with water; morning dew and fog on our playgrounds and in our parks may increase the toxic effects experienced by exposed children in the morning. How are playgrounds and play equipment going to be protected?
* Schools rely on attendance for funding. More absenteeism results in less funding from the state. Some children are likely to stay at home during spray periods, either as the result of illness or parental caution. (There is some hypothetical evidence of this from Santa Cruz and Monterey County school districts.)
* Spray particles will be tracked into school facilities on shoes, backpacks, and clothing and will concentrate in classrooms and hallways.
* School healthcare resources may be overburdened. Schools nurses should be educated on signs and symptoms of pesticide-related illnesses, and will need to have protocols in place to manage children who become ill on the days following the spray. Schools without school nurses are especially vulnerable.
- Berkeleydailyplanet.com reader commentary (05/01/08)
According to the CDFA's latest LBAM Action Plan (attached), San Francisco is scheduled to begin aerial spraying October, 2008, with repeated applications every 30-90 days. Each spray session lasts 3-5 days. Low-flying planes will disperse chemical clouds throughout our city, covering everything in our school grounds from playground structures, to grassy and blacktop areas where children sit, to handrails and door handles they touch. Any time our children go outside, their clothes and hands will pick up chemicals. From there, it is a short trip inside their bodies.
It hardly needs to be mentioned that if the CDFA is allowed to spray San Francisco schools, the costs to SFUSD could be intolerable. Either the district will be faced with massive maintenance and overtime costs to cover and clean the outdoor surfaces of every one of more than 140 schools in our city, or SFUSD will face enormous liability costs for children getting sick. Neither option is acceptable, particularly in this time of fiscal scarcity.
We believe that you are committed to doing everything in your power to make sure that the children, whom you are entrusted with caring for, are indeed cared for. We plead with you to take action immediately. Publicly state your opposition to aerial spraying of San Francisco schools. Help us protect our children by creating a plan to inform families and school administration should the CDFA be allowed to continue with their program and ensure us that there will be an action plan for clean-up operations.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Lynn Murphy
PlaynotSpray
www.playnotspray.org
Contact: Lynn Murphy at lynn_kirkpatrick@hotmail.com or info@playnotspray.org
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