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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

MN Mom Petitions EPA to Protect Kids from Pesticide Drift

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Thursday, July 25, 2013   

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A Minnesota mom is among the petitioners in a lawsuit filed against the Environmental Protection Agency. The suit seeks to force the EPA to reevaluate the potential harms of pesticide drift exposure and then take action accordingly. Comments from Linda Wells, associate organizing director, Pesticide Action Network North America; and petitioner Bonnie Wirtz of Melrose. Photo available of "crop duster."

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being taken to court over claims that it is failing when it comes to protecting children from pesticide drift. Linda Wells, associate organizing director, Pesticide Action Network of North America, said the lawsuit seeks to force the EPA to reevaluate the potential harms, specifically for children in rural America.

"Farm workers' kids and farmers' kids are the ones who are being impacted daily," Wells warned. "We want the EPA to evaluate the risk of pesticide drift exposure for all pesticides and then limit or prohibit those pesticides based on their evaluation."

The petition also asks the EPA to immediately adopt no-spray buffer zones around homes, schools, parks and day care centers for the most dangerous and drift-prone pesticides, which Wells said are associated with serious health effects.

"There's a growing body of evidence that points to pesticide exposure as a significant contributor when it comes to a whole myriad of childhood health harms, including learning disabilities, childhood cancers, obesity and everything along the autism spectrum," she said.

Congress required the EPA to set standards by 2006 to protect children from pesticides, but Wells claimed the progress made since that deadline passed is not nearly enough.

Among the individual declarants in the suit is farmer and mother Bonnie Wirtz, Melrose. Wirtz was treated at the emergency room last year when pesticide was sprayed on a nearby field and drifted into her home. She said the exposure caused a severe reaction.

"The practitioner who handled my case was really irate. She said, 'This is unacceptable, and I see this more than I would like to see this.' She was the one who made me realize that this issue was more commonplace than I or anyone else had ever realized," Wirtz said.

More than 5 billion pounds of pesticides are used in the U.S. each year.

Additional information and a petition are available at http://www.autismohio.org/.



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