Pesticides - Clear Cuts Are Toxic

All you have to do is look at a clear cut to know it’s not a good thing.  Clear cuts destroy everything in their path – ancient trees, plant and animal habitat, watersheds, and the very soil the trees once grew in, just to name a few.  But did you know clear cuts are actually toxic?  Not just in the figurative sense, but in the technical.  Here’s why:

Toxic chemicals play a big part in the clear cutting process.  After the slash (the actual cut) and burn (when piles of left over brush and debris are burned), the landscape is doused in a lethal mix of herbicides.  This is done to ensure any smaller vegetation that may have survived the initial assault is poisoned and killed-off.  Many of these herbicides are toxic.  Many of them have been linked to cancer.

So when a clear cut operation takes place right up to and next to a school, a warning shot has been fired and we would be wise to hear its call.

Toxics aren’t good for any of us, but they’re especially harmful to children because children are still growing and developing.  Studies show exposure to herbicides can adversely affect a child's neurological, respiratory, reproductive, and immune systems.  A study done by the Oregon Health Science University (OHSU) found children’s thinking, memory, and spatial skills are impaired when exposed to herbicides.

What can we do to protect ourselves and our children from these toxics?  One seemingly simple, common-sense action would be to create a no-spray zone buffer around schools.  This zone would act as a one-mile protective radius around schools where pesticides and herbicides could not be sprayed.

Oregon Toxics Alliance (OTA) has been working with the Oregon Legislature to create such buffer zones, but we need your help.  The timber and agriculture interests see buffer-zones as a threat to their profit margins and they hold a lot of power in the Capitol. Still, we have truth on our side and with your help we can make a difference.  Click here to find out how.