Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 9/15/2021
NORTHAMPTON – During the Northampton Board of Health’s Sept. 9 meeting, the board agreed to support a bill that would ban the use of pesticides at schools and received an update on COVID-19 numbers in the city.
To start the pesticide bill discussion, Carole Horowitz, a representative from the policy committee of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, said the bill will restrict the use of toxic pesticides near schools.
“This bill, which we call the Schoolchildren Pesticide Protection Act, was filed by Rep. Carmine Gentile of Sudbury and has 35 legislative co-sponsors right now. The bill will protect children by restricting outdoor use of toxic pesticides near schools and childcare centers and will only allow pesticides the EPA considers minimum risk,” she said.
Under the current regulations, Horowitz said there are many harmful pesticides being used at schools, particularly on athletic fields.
“Right now, schools can use anything that is not classified as a carcinogen or a probable carcinogen and as we know, there are many pesticides that are carcinogenic or believed to be that are perfectly legal, and many schools are using them,” she said.
Citing a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Horowitz said early life exposure to pesticides is associated with pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function and behavioral problems.
“In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics called for governments to reduce children’s exposure to pesticides writing that, ‘Scientific evidence demonstrates associations between early life exposures to pesticides and pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function and behavioral problems,’” she said.
Horowitz said her group decided to support this bill over several other anti-pesticide bills because it focuses on protecting children.
“We picked this bill to focus on because we think schoolchildren are so vulnerable and also, we can get a message out about pesticides and how toxic they are to people using them at home who have children, animals, and immunocompromised members,” she said.
Horowitz added that she is working with local and state-wide organizations to drum up support for the bill.
The board unanimously agreed to support the bill as it works its way through the state legislature.
After agreeing to support the bill, Public Health Director Merridith O’Leary provided a brief update on COVID-19 in Northampton.
“Our last 14-day case count is 55 and our incident rate is 14 per day per 100,000. I feel like as I watch the last two to three weeks we may be at our peak and I am hoping we go on the other side of this; however we do have school starting, sports starting, Labor Day weekend and the Three County Fair so those variables give me a little bit of pause,” she said.
O’Leary added that while most of the transmission is community spread without any identifiable source, her team is investigating a cluster in sports at school.
“It is community transmission. We really cannot identify any one place transmission is happening, so we call it widespread community transmission at this point. We have had a couple events at our schools and one we are working on is sports related and we can consider this a cluster,” she said.
She added that she did not want to comment on what sport the cluster came from but said she and the board will consider adjusting the mask mandate in town to include moderate and high-risk sports.