Californians: Take Action to Stop Pesticide Secrets
When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last December that it wanted to consider greater disclosure of the so-called inert ingredients in pesticides, it may not have known how many people cared the issue.
(“Inert” ingredients in pesticides are the mostly secret, mostly untested chemicals that can cause illnesses, despite their misleading name.)
Over two thousand of you signed our petition urging EPA to move forward quickly. There’s been other support as well – organizations like the American Nurses Association, the California Stormwater Quality Association, and many more are on record as supporting the proposal to provide us with more information about inert ingredients. (On the other side, the pesticide industry is campaigning hard to get EPA to put on the brakes.)
Now Californians have an additional opportunity to support the disclosure efforts. Senator Mark Leno and Assemblymember Bill Monning have introduced resolutions (SR35 and HR23) that would clarify California’s support for disclosure of currently secret ingredients in pesticides. One resolution has passed out of one committee, and there are a couple more hearings next week and floor votes coming up.
These resolutions are an important opportunity to make the pesticide industry tell us the truth about what’s in their products. We need to take advantage of this.
Read SR 35 here, and read HR 23 here.
Click here to see the brief explanation about the inert issue that I wrote a few weeks ago. And here’s a great link for those you’d like to join me in reading the really nerdy stuff.
Most importantly, take this quick and easy action: please click here to urge your California legislators to put California on record as supporting full disclosure of pesticide ingredients. And ask your friends and family to do the same.
Also, if you still haven’t signed our letter to support EPA’s move toward disclosure, you still can. The comment period has been extended until April 23, 2010. This web tool makes it easy for you to join the thousands who’ve already supported disclosure.
Your help is so important. Thank you.