NAMA joins 50 other organizations from around the country on a letter in support of the Petition to Protect Children From Pesticide Drift (the “Kids’ Petition”), and to comment on the Pesticide Registration Notice regarding pesticide drift labeling and the accompanying guidance. In the letter, the groups urged the Environmental Protection to take immediate protective action by establishing no-spray buffers around areas where children congregate while EPA fully evaluates and protects against pesticide drift exposures to children. This petition asks EPA to take these immediate steps to comply with its legal duty, under the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA), Executive Order on Children’s Health and the Environmental Justice Executive Order, to protect all children from all pesticide drift exposures.

Why would NAMA sign onto this letter, you ask? Pesticides and other chemicals often end up in the marine ecosystem affecting the long term health of marine organisms including all the fish and marine animals we are all working so hard to protect.

So, yes, we did it because we feel our kids shouldn’t be exposed to pesticides drifting toward them. But we also did it because we believe better alternatives to toxic pesticides exist and must be used not only to protect our kids, but to protect all the species on the planet as we all live “in an inescapable web of mutuality” (part of Martin Luther Kind, Jr. quote. We’re not that brilliant!).