- TERRIFIC NEWS FROM THE NO SPRAY COALITION No Spray Settlement
of Lawsuit against Giuliani, et. al.
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- editor@NoSpray.org
- SprayNo@yahoogroups.com
- 718-670-7110
- www.nospray.org
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- For seven years, the No Spray Coalition has battled the
City of New York in Federal Court in opposition to the Giuliani administration's
massive and indiscriminate spraying of toxic pesticides, including Malathion.
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- On April 12, a federal judge signed a settlement agreement
in which New York City admits that the pesticides sprayed may indeed be
dangerous to human health as well as to the natural environment.
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- The settlement agreement states that, contrary to the
City's prior statements, 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.
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- Mitchel Cohen, the coordinator of the No Spray Coalition
and an individual plaintiff in the lawsuit, sees the settlement agreement
as a "tremendous victory" for health and environmental advocates.
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- "Thousands of New Yorkers were made seriously sick
by the spraying," Cohen said. "A number of members of our coalition,
including several of the plaintiffs, died from pesticide-related illnesses.
Many suffer from Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) or Asthma caused
or exacerbated by the spraying. We are very glad that the new City administration
has to some degree acknowledged that pesticides are extremely dangerous
to human health. They need to be rejected as a way of killing mosquitoes."
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- "In particular," Cohen continued, "the
use of insect repellents containing DEET should never be used, especially
on children."
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- Another plaintiff in the lawsuit, artist Robert Lederman,
noted that in 1999 and 2000, then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and other City
officials claimed that the spraying was "safe" and was used as
"a last resort" in its effort to kill mosquitoes said to be vectors
for West Nile encephalitis.
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- "This agreement represents the latest rebuff to
the notion that Giuliani was a good Mayor," Lederman said. "In
1999 and 2000, while repeatedly spraying the population of NY with pesticides
derived from Nazi-era nerve gasses, Giuliani appeared in daily press conferences
claiming that the chemicals were completely harmless. The City of NY has
now admitted that these chemicals are harmful, that they persist in the
environment and that much more caution will have to be used if they decide
to ever spray them again."
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- Attorneys for the No Spray Coalition -- Joel Kupferman,
of the NY Environmental Law and Justice Project, and Karl Coplan and Daniel
Estrin, of PACE Environmental Litigation Clinic, announced that as part
of the settlement the City agreed to pay $80,000 to five grassroots environmental
and wildlife rehabilitation groups and meet with the plaintiffs in several
sessions to review an extensive list of concerns that the Coalition provided.
The Plaintiffs are not permitted, under the terms of the Clean Water Act,
to receive a monetary settlement themselves.
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- Members of the Coalition say that the resolution of the
lawsuit begins a new phase in its activities. In its letter of concerns
to the City, which is an attachment to the lawsuit settlement, the No Spray
Coalition seeks to win official approval for its proposed "Community
Environment and Health Council," with members drawn from the plaintiffs,
the City, and health care professionals, environmental organizations, advocacy
groups, non-toxic pesticide applicators and other pesticide-conscious parties.
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- Cohen said that if the City approves the proposed Environment
and Health Council in further negotiations with the No Spray Coalition,
the new Council would "make recommendations on environmental health
impacts of pesticide use and alternatives, hear from (and possibly include)
neurotoxicologists, neuropsychologists, non-toxic pest control experts,
wildlife rehabilitators; analyze toxicological samplings, and submit findings
to review by occupational and environmental health case providers and advocates."
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- The Council would also sponsor public meetings before
pesticides are used, at which the DOH and other public officials must attend
and be available to answer questions, Cohen said. It would "review
and propose alternative, nontoxic control of mosquitoes; critique the city's
official mosquito control plan and offer new plans to replace adulticides
with safe materials; assess agents chosen with regard to interaction with
all toxins in our living environment, and then test agents in combination
with them for synergistic or cumulative impact on health and environment.
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- "Additionaly, it would review transportation, storage,
and financial ramifications of pesticides; develop and publicize substantive
and "least harmful" application guidelines for any chemicals
the City seeks to apply to the environment; access all NYC information
on health concerns for pesticides and other chemicals; establish a liaison
to the NY City Council Committee of Health and Environment and be added
as non-voting, adjunct members to that City Council committee."
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- Cohen said that while he hopes that the City would approve
the proposal to establish the Health and Environmental Council, he recognizes
that "it will probably take another prolonged struggle to achieve
that, the next step in our fight to make the City accountable environmentally
and health-wise to the people subjected to these toxins."
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- Cohen added that he sees the terms of the Settlement
Agreement as helpful to those fighting against pesticide spraying elsewhere.
"Indeed, we consulted with many organizations not only in the U.S.
but in Canada and Mexico as well," Cohen said, "and we negotiated
clauses in the Agreement with the needs of other locales in mind."
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- The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were: the No Spray Coalition,
National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, Disabled in Action,
Save Organic Standards - New York (by its president, Howard Brandstein),
and individual plaintiffs Valerie Sheppard (deceased), Mitchel Cohen, Robert
Lederman, and Eva Yaa Asantewaa.
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- website: www.nospray.org
- hotline: 718-670-7110
- email: editor@NoSpray.org
- listserve: SprayNo@yahoogroups.com
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