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PESTICIDE
SAFE SCHOOLS
California Safe Schools (CSS)
Focus on Student Health
California Safe Schools is a non-profit organization
internationally celebrated for protecting school children from
pesticides. A coalition of more than fifty organizations and
many individuals, CSS lead a successful campaign to implement
the safest pesticide policy ever adopted in the United States
protecting 800,000 children in the nation‚s second-largest
school district. The policy was the first in the United States
to embrace the "Precautionary Principle" and Parents Right to
Know of chemicals used in or around school campuses. This policy
has become a national model for school districts and
communities.
"SUPPORT CSS"
For more information, contact:
Robina Suwol
Executive Director
California Safe Schools
818-785-5515
schoolipm@earthlink.net
www.calisafe.org
SAN FRANCISCO
(July 21, 2005)--Scientists at Pesticide Action Network
North America analyzed pesticide data in a study released today
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), finding
that more than 90% of those tested carried a mixture of
pesticides in their bodies. Many of these chemicals have been
linked to health effects such as cancer, birth defects and
neurological problems.
“This study
highlights the tip of a toxic iceberg,” said Margaret Reeves,
Ph.D., a senior scientist at Pesticide Action Network. “CDC
evaluated only a fraction of the total number of pesticides used
every day in agricultural fields, homes and gardens and found
many of these toxic chemicals present in our bodies.”
This is CDC’s
third national report sampling the blood and urine of thousands
of subjects across the country for dozens of toxic chemicals. In
this third study, 148 environmental chemicals were measured, 43
of them pesticides. There are currently over 1200 pesticides
formulated into tens of thousands of products registered for use
in the U.S.
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