Ban chlorpyrifos once and for all
To the Editor,
As a Watsonville teacher, I was devastated to hear that the EPA reversed its proposed ban of a neurotoxic pesticide before its March 31 Cesar Chavez Day deadline. Chavez warned us, “If we ignored pesticide poisoning, if we looked on as farm workers and their children are stricken, then all the other injustices our people face would be compounded by an even more deadly tyranny.”
Today, the tyrannical Trump administration continues to ignore the harm that chronic pesticide exposure wreaks on agricultural communities.
The EPA’s rejection of its own science and refusal to ban chlorpyrifos puts the students of my school district at risk of the same brain harms documented in the UC Berkeley CHAMACOS studies, such as at Amesti Elementary where 366 pounds of chlorpyrifos were applied in the surrounding square mile in 2014.
California must now step up in opposition to Trump’s blatant disregard for our wellbeing and ban this brain-harming pesticide once and for all.
Jennifer Khan
Watsonville
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Overpopulation and immigration
To the Editor,
Before passing judgment on who belongs in the country, let’s take an easy step to lessen the strain on the infrastructure that makes sense and doesn’t cost anything. (Why burden those who do pay the taxes with a $40 billion debt plus a forever “maintenance fee,” that could all be better spent on genuine improvements? Efforts could also be better spent building “bridges” not “walls.”) Let’s first correct a factor that has been around for generations and now encourages a burden on our infrastructure.
This factor involves the more dependents declared on tax forms, the larger the write-off. Each dependent is a credit of over $4,000/year, so there is incentive to have excess dependents. This factor may seem minuscule, but it does add up and encourages families to be larger than they may otherwise have been.
The concept to procreate should continue to be in place, but following the welfare path of “octo-mom” should be less encouraged. Why encourage excesses from within our own country that will burden the infrastructures for at least 18 years each (birth to adult, then potential to forever multiply the overpopulation effect)?
Before trying to limit immigrants who may have followed the same path as our ancestors, why not simply amend an aspect of the tax code to give credit of up to four dependents (or whatever the consensus), rather than having this forever be an unlimited number? Exceptions for appropriate situations can be incorporated, including encouraging adoptions and accommodating existing conditions.
Bob Fifield
Aptos
