Wa: Chemical dangers at schools - Pesticides used by many districts

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Chemical dangers at schools

Pesticides used by many districts, coalition says

Friday, April 30, 2004

By GREGORY ROBERTS

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/171350_pesticides30.html

The good news is that public school groundskeepers in Seattle are

cutting back on their use of hazardous chemicals for killing weeds and

bugs, and some other school districts have stopped using highly toxic

pesticides altogether.

The bad news is that nearly all the biggest districts in the state use

" high-hazard " chemicals linked to cancer, brain damage or reproductive

harm in maintaining school buildings and grounds, potentially

endangering the health of students.

That's the word from a report on school pesticide practices released

yesterday by the Washington Toxics Coalition, a non-profit environmental

group.

" Using high-hazard pesticides in our schools is a high-stakes gamble

that we're sure to lose, " Storey, the author of the report, said

in a news conference at Orca Elementary School in Seattle.

" Pesticides are poisons -- toxic chemicals that know no boundaries. "

The coalition wrote to the 58 largest school districts in the state in

July and asked for copies of their pesticide-use report for the 2002-03

school year, as required under a 2002 state law called the Children's

Pesticide Right-to-Know Act.

Of the 50 districts responding, all but two -- Tahoma, which operates

schools in the Maple Valley area, and Oak Harbor, on Whidbey Island --

reported using high-hazard pesticides to control insects, rodents or

weeds on school grounds. A third district, Vancouver, banned the use of

high-hazard chemicals except as a last resort in March 2002, but

reported applying four such pesticides in 2002-03.

The 48 districts reporting use of the hazardous substances educate

two-thirds of the public-school students in Washington. The chemicals

may be used in classrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, hallways, playgrounds,

lawns or planting areas, the report said.

The coalition defined certain chemicals as high-hazard if they threaten

the long-term health of children: potentially causing cancer, disrupting

hormonal activity or damaging the nervous or reproductive systems, based

on research findings by governmental and other scientific agencies.

The coalition also inferred that many districts are not complying with

the record-keeping requirements of the Pesticide Right-to-Know Act. The

law also calls for schools to post signs when they are applying the

chemicals, and to provide 48-hour advance notice to parents who request it.

But the report also says that several school systems are cutting down on

pesticide use, even if they have not adopted an outright ban --

including Seattle, the state's largest district.

District gardeners such as Liesl Zappler, who takes care of Orca

Elementary and seven other South Seattle schools, disavow the use of

toxic chemicals, and they are spreading the doctrine of hand-weeding,

mulching and application of benign agents such as vinegar.

" We have significantly reduced the use of pesticides for grounds

maintenance over the last three years, " ny Burrow, the district's

grounds supervisor, said at the news conference.

Part of the reformers' message is that school grounds need not achieve

perfection, Burrow and Zappler said.

" There is a thinking that there's a certain look a school needs to have

-- and that look requires the use of pesticides, " Burrow said. But it's

possible to keep school grounds in good shape without hazardous

chemicals, he said.

Seattle School Board member Brita -Wall said she will push for

formal adoption of a ban on hazardous pesticide use in schools.

No pesticides are no problem for Orca fifth-graders Ronnie Coulter and

Emma Levy, who help maintain their classroom plot in the school's

extensive flower and vegetable garden without using chemicals.

" They can hurt other things than just the weeds, " Ronnie said. " We like

our worms because they help us with our plants. "

" It's easier just to pull the weeds, " Emma said.

" And it's funner, " Ronnie said. " If we used chemicals, we wouldn't have

as much to do. "

ON THE WEB

For the Washington Toxics Coalition's report on school pesticide use in

Washington, visit www.watoxics.org <http://www.watoxics.org>

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