SASS members push for pesticide control

An organization called Safe Ag Safe Schools has been working to protect communities from what they see as “a clear case of environmental racism.”

Their main target: pesticides.

“I work at a school in Watsonville called Ohlone Elementary School. And we have strawberry fields surrounding our school, and there’s a lot of dangerous chemicals and pesticides that have been used,” said Melissa Dennis, a SASS member.

People who work in this group like Dennis argue pesticides can be harmful to children’s health and development. They say the science is on their side, and they are disappointed with the lack of protection on the federal and state levels.

“The organizations that are in place to protect the public have been protecting the companies that stand to profit from the sale of the chemicals that are poisoning the students,” said Dennis.

Earlier in August, public health groups won a lawsuit that now orders the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos within 60 days.

The agency had already banned the household use of that chemical in 2000, but it was never banned outright. Some scientists say chlorpyrifos is still safe for commercial agriculture uses in small amounts.

This is something SASS members reject.

“What we’re calling for is for our elected officials and for our appointed government representatives to do their job and start regulating the pesticides that we’re all exposed to on a daily basis, especially the children,” said Dennis.

Among the group’s pushes: a full-time no-spray buffer zone of at least one mile around schools as well as a community-wide warning system to let residents know of pesticide sprays before they happen.

And SASS says they will use letters, phone calls to officials and the ballot box to achieve their goals.