With NY City poised to mass-spray large areas of Brooklyn and Queens
tonight, and with No Spray activists revving up into hi-gear to oppose
it, here is my 3-minute testimony given to the Department of Sanitation
in 2007, including a summary of 7 scientific studies on pesticides that
are as relevant today as they were four years ago:
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Pesticides and the Southwest Brooklyn Garbage Transfer
Station
Testimony of Mitchel Cohen, to the Department of
Sanitation
In its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), the City
writes:
"Procedures to control vermin, such as rats and insects, would be
or, in the case of existing facilities, are incorporated into the
operating permit of each Proposed Plan Facility. Licensed exterminators
would service each Converted MTS monthly. ... The exterminators would
evaluate potential pest and vector problems and apply bait and/or spray
throughout the refuse handling area, the tipping floor, the lunch and
locker rooms and administrative areas. Standing water in barges not being
used would be treated with larvicide and pesticide spray when
necessary." (Chapter 33.5)
The proposed transfer station will be situated right on Gravesend Bay,
which is the most environmentally sensitive water body in this area and
perhaps in the entire State. Even tiny amounts of pesticides kill fish,
horseshoe crabs (which, in addition to being the oldest creatures on the
planet, are indispensable for scientific research), butterflies, bees,
birds, dragonflies, etc., as well as mosquitoes and unwanted critters.
The labels on Malathion, Pyrethroids, and piperonyl butoxide (a so-called
synergist and a carcinogen) all warn against spraying over or near bodies
of water.
Pesticides are especially dangerous for brain and nerve development in
young children, and for elderly people. With the expectation that almost
5,000 trucks per month will be utilizing this facility, picking up
pesticides on their wheels and rumbling past various local facilities for
developmentally disabled children on their route, one would think that a
proper Environmental Impact Study would address those concerns. Yet there
is not a single line in the FEIS that does so.
Just last week, the City agreed to settle a 7-year-old lawsuit against
its massive and indiscriminate spraying of toxic pesticides brought under
the Clean Water Act by the No Spray Coalition, which I coordinate. In
addition to winning $80,000 for a number of local grassroots
environmental and wildlife protection groups, as part of the settlement
agreement the City admitted (and I quote): "Pesticides may remain in
the environment beyond their intended purpose, ... cause adverse health
effects, ... kill mosquitoes' natural predators, ... increase mosquito
resistance to the sprays, ... and are not presently approved for direct
application to waterways."
In fact, I submit the following seven groups of published studies that
speak directly to this grave issue, which is one of extraordinary
environmental INjustice.
i. Centers for Disease Control study that found that all
residents of the United States, including residents of New York City and
State, now carry dangerously high levels of pesticides and their residues
in our bodies, which may have onerous effects on our health.
(Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals,
Centers for Disease
Control, 2005);
ii. U.S. Geological Study, which shows that a large percentage of
waterways and streams throughout the United States, including those in
New York City and State, has been found to contain environmentally
destructive pesticides that may severely impact on animal and aquatic
life. (U.S. Geological Survey: The Quality of Our Nation's Waters,
Pesticides in the Nation's Streams and Ground Water, 1992-2001,
http://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/2005/1291/);
iii. Studies confirming that pesticides are both a trigger for asthma
attacks and a root cause of asthma (Salam, et al: Early-life
environmental risk factors for asthma findings from the children's health
study. Environmental Health Perspectives 112(6):760-765.), and that
asthma is epidemic throughout New York City;
iv. Cicero Swamp Study, showing that pesticides killed off the natural
predators of mosquitoes and that mosquitoes came back much stronger after
the spraying, because all of their natural predators (which have a
longer reproductive cycle) were dead. These studies were done in New York
state for mosquitoes carrying Eastern Equine Encephalitis, and found a
15-fold increase in mosquitoes after repeated spraying, and that
virtually all of the new generations of mosquitoes were
pesticide-resistant. (Journal of the Am Mosquito Control Assoc, Dec;
13(4):315-25, 1997 Howard JJ, Oliver New York State Department of Health,
SUNY-College ESF, Syracuse 13210, USA);
v. Studies that show that pesticides have cumulative,
multigenerational, degenerative impacts on human health, especially on
the development of children which may not be evident immediately and
may only appear years or even decades later (The Multigenerational,
Cumulative and Destructive Impacts of Pesticides on Human Health,
Especially on the Physical, Emotional and Mental Development of Children
and Future Generations. A Submission to The House of Commons Standing
Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development by Physicians
and Scientists for a Healthy World, February 2000; Guillette, Elizabeth,
et al: Anthropological Approach to the Evaluation of Pre-school
Children Exposed to Pesticides in Mexico. Environmental Health
Perspective, Vol. 106, No.6, June 1998; Kaplan, Jonathan et al.
Failing Health. Pesticides Use in California Schools. Report by
Californians for Pesticide Reform, 2002, American Academy of
Pediatrics, Committee on Environmental Health; Ambient Air Pollution:
Respiratory Hazards to Children, Pediatrics 91, 1993);
vi. Studies that show that pesticides make it easier for mosquitoes
and other organisms to get and transmit West Nile Virus due to damage
to their stomach lining. (Haas, George. West Nile virus, spraying
pesticides the wrong response. American Bird Conservancy, October 23,
2000); and,
vii. Studies that show that pyrethroid spraying is ineffective in
reducing the number of the next generation of mosquitoes.
(Efficacy of Resmethrin Aerosols Applied from the Road for Suppressing
Culex Vectors of West Nile Virus, Michael R. Reddy, Department of
Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard School of Public Health,
Boston, Massachusetts, et. al., Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases,
Volume 6, Number 2, June 2006)
The use of toxic pesticides to control the vermin that will be attracted
to the proposed Southwest Garbage Transfer Station is a significant
Environmental Justice issue for which no impact study has been
analyzed, let alone any study of cumulative impacts. I was indeed
surprised that none of this was discussed in the current
proposal.
Mitchel Cohen, coordinator,
No Spray Coalition
www.nospray.org
http://www.MitchelCohen.com
Ring the bells
that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack, a crack in everything, That's how the light gets
in.
~ Leonard Cohen
