Archive for the 'Children/Schools' Category
25
Aug
(Beyond Pesticides, August 25, 2010) Exposure to pesticides while in the womb may increase the odds that a child will have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to researchers at the University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health. Maternal metabolites of organophosphate pesticides have previously been associated with neurobehavioral deficits in children.
The California researchers are [...]
Posted in ADHD, Children/Schools, Chlorpyrifos, Dichlorvos, Malathion | No Comments »
24
Aug
(Beyond Pesticides, August 24, 2010) Update: The Healthy Schools Act of 2010 (SB 1157) passed the State Assembly. A conference committee of state assembly members and senators will now negotiate a final bill and send it to Governor Schwarzenegger. You can contact the Governor’s office at 916-445-2841.
Grassroots organizations in California predict that the Healthy Schools [...]
Posted in California, Children/Schools, State/Local | No Comments »
16
Aug
(Beyond Pesticides, Aug 16, 2010) A recently released study conducted by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences shows government agencies may be underestimating children’s dietary exposure to pesticides and, therefore, the inherent risks to children’s health. The study, “Assessing Children’s Dietary Pesticide Exposure- Direct measurement of Pesticide Residues in 24-Hour Duplicate Food Samples” lead [...]
Posted in Children/Schools | No Comments »
03
Aug
(Beyond Pesticides, August 3, 2010) A new study shows that due to a flaw in standard risk assessments, which consider toxic effects at fixed exposure times, the risks posed by the neonicotinoid pesticides imidacloprid and thiacloprid are likely to be underestimated. The authors believe that minute quantities of imidicloprid may be playing a much larger [...]
Posted in Acephate, Arizona, Aurora, Biofuels, Children/Schools, Dow Chemical, magnesium phosphide | 1 Comment »
02
Aug
(Beyond Pesticides, Aug 2, 2010) A new report conducted by an Ann Arbor, Michigan based coalition of health and environmental groups estimates that children’s exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides, cost Michigan billions of dollars each year. The study examines the costs associated with four environmentally related childhood diseases: lead poisoning, asthma, pediatric cancer, and [...]
Posted in Asthma, Cancer, Children/Schools, Health care, Michigan, Nervous System Effects | 2 Comments »
29
Jul
(Beyond Pesticides, July 29, 2010) A set of mandatory rules intended to reduce pesticide use in public and private schools in Indiana is pending approval after voluntary implementation guidelines failed. The Indiana Pesticides Board submitted a draft proposal in June outlining rules to minimize pesticide exposure to students. These measures include banning the use of [...]
Posted in Children/Schools, Indiana | No Comments »
26
Jul
(Beyond Pesticides, July 26, 2010) Researchers at the Center for Children’s Environmental Health Research, UC Berkeley School of Public Health has found that the majority of child daycare centers surveyed do not understand the term Integrative Pest Management (IPM), and many spray pesticides without notifying parents or posting signs. Specifically, the survey found that over [...]
Posted in California, Children/Schools | No Comments »
21
May
(Beyond Pesticides, May 21, 2010) Governor Patterson of New York signed the Child Safe Playing Field Act into law on Tuesday, marking a huge victory for grassroots environmental and human health groups. The law helps to protect children by banning the use of pesticides on school playing fields and play grounds. Schools will have one [...]
Posted in Children/Schools, Lawns/Landscapes | No Comments »
18
May
(Beyond Pesticides, May 18, 2010) A team of scientists from the University of Montreal and Harvard University have discovered that exposure to organophosphate pesticides is associated with increased risk of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the study focused on 1,139 children from the general [...]
Posted in ADHD, Chemicals, Children/Schools, Chlorpyrifos, Disease/Health Effects | No Comments »
12
May
(Beyond Pesticides, May 12, 2010) Disturbed to learn that an advisory committee in his community in Boulder, Colorado had approved two new herbicides for use on city parks, a 9-year-old environmental activist organized a group of some two dozen children to protest the potential use of the herbicides in front of the Boulder County Courthouse [...]
Posted in Children/Schools, Colorado, Lawns/Landscapes | 3 Comments »
07
May
(Beyond Pesticides, May 7, 2010) Human Rights Watch has released a scathing report entitled “Fields of Peril” on the treatment of child farm workers in the United States. To compile the report, Human Rights Watch interviewed child and young adult farm laborers and parents in all regions of the country, as well as farm managers, [...]
Posted in Children/Schools, Environmental Justice, Farmworkers | No Comments »
26
Apr
(Beyond Pesticides, April 26, 2010) With the growing number of viable, cost-effective alternative pest management strategies, it has never been easier for schools to eliminate the unnecessary use of toxic pesticide in school buildings and on school grounds. In celebration of Healthy School Day, an annual event coordinated by the Healthy Schools Network, Beyond Pesticides, [...]
Posted in Children/Schools | No Comments »
21
Apr
Update: UPDATE (May 6, 2010): Assemblymember Steven Englebright (D-Setauket) today announced passage of the Child Safe Playing Fields Act (A 7937-C) that would prohibit the use of toxic pesticides on school and daycare center playgrounds, turf, athletic and playing fields and called upon the Governor to sign the bill as quickly as possible. The state [...]
Posted in Alternatives/Organics, Children/Schools, Lawns/Landscapes | 2 Comments »
19
Apr
(Beyond Pesticides, April 19, 2010) Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour last week signed a childhood asthma management and prevention bill into law that includes provisions requiring all public school districts to implement an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program and prohibiting the use of hazardous substances such as cleaning products and pesticides. Although the bill reads as [...]
Posted in Asthma, Children/Schools, Mississippi | No Comments »
08
Apr
(Beyond Pesticides, April 8, 2010) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is requiring new restrictions on aluminum and magnesium phosphide products in an attempt to better protect people, especially children, from dangerous exposures. The new restrictions prohibit all uses of the products around residential areas and increase buffer zones for treatment around non-residential buildings [...]
Posted in Children/Schools, Fumigants, Pesticide Regulation, Phosphine, Rodents, Uncategorized, aluminum phosphide, magnesium phosphide | No Comments »
06
Apr
(Beyond Pesticides, April 6, 2010) A new report analyzing regulations from California’s 25 top agricultural counties finds that many counties do more to protect crops than children from potentially harmful pesticide drift. The report, Pesticide Protection Zones: Keeping Kids Safe at School, finds that eleven counties have no protection zones around schools at all, while [...]
Posted in California, Children/Schools | 1 Comment »
29
Mar
(Beyond Pesticides, March 29, 2010) Prenatal exposure to pesticides at levels that do not cause adverse health effects in the mother can lead to delayed brain developmental in the child, according to the new study, “Neurobehavioral Deficits and Increased Blood Pressure in School-Age Children Prenatally Exposed to Pesticides,” published last month in the early online [...]
Posted in Children/Schools, Disease/Health Effects | 1 Comment »
26
Mar
(Beyond Pesticides, March 26, 2010) A new study by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health has linked exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos to early childhood developmental delays. Chlorpyrifos is a broad spectrum organophosphate insecticide that was banned for household use in 2001, but is still widely used in agriculture. The study, entitled [...]
Posted in Children/Schools, Chlorpyrifos, Disease/Health Effects | No Comments »
17
Mar
(Beyond Pesticides, March 17, 2009) “Children Act Fast…So Do Poisons” is the message that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sending in conjunction with the Poison Prevention Week Council to keep poisonous substances out of the hands of children. In observance of the annual National Poison Prevention Week (March 14-20), EPA recommends locking up [...]
Posted in Children/Schools | 1 Comment »
11
Feb
(Beyond Pesticides, February 11, 2010) Investigators are tying the deaths of 4-year and 15-month old sisters in Layton, Utah to a pesticide that was used to kill voles, small burrowing rodents, in their family’s front yard. The 4-year-old, Rebecca Toone, died Saturday and her sister Rachel died on Tuesday after the family was hospitalized with [...]
Posted in Children/Schools, Rodents, Utah | 1 Comment »
20
Jan
(Beyond Pesticides, January, 21, 2009) A new study concludes that exposures during pregnancy and childhood to insecticides that target the nervous system, such as organophosphates (OPs) and carbamates, are associated with childhood brain tumors. The researchers hypothesize that this susceptibility might be increased in children with genetic variations that affect the metabolism of these chemicals.
The [...]
Posted in Children/Schools, Chlorpyrifos, Diazinon, Disease/Health Effects | No Comments »
12
Jan
(Beyond Pesticides, January 12, 2010) Beyond Pesticides, along with Case Western Reserve University Medical School’s Swetland Center for Environmental Health and the local grassroots group Beyond Pesticides Ohio, will be hosting Greening the Community, the 28th National Pesticide Forum, April 9-10, 2010 in Cleveland, OH. This national environmental conference will focus on pesticide-free lawns and [...]
Posted in Alternatives/Organics, Chemicals, Children/Schools, Disease/Health Effects, Events, Lawns/Landscapes, Ohio, Water | 1 Comment »
10
Dec
(Beyond Pesticides, December 10, 2009) Following news that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering a higher uncertainty factor in all pesticide risk determinations, the agency is making available for comment a policy paper entitled “Revised Risk Assessment Methods for Workers, Children of Workers in Agricultural Fields, and Pesticides with No Food Uses.” The paper [...]
Posted in Children/Schools, Farmworkers, Pesticide Regulation | No Comments »