2006 i was substituting for a 5th grade class all of sudden it's kids come 1st. really agitated one of the boys to their health and on the way he collapsed the next morning. we were not spraying anything but the teachers had actually gone out and taken pictures when all this chaos was going on the school and students were being and they were spraying right in the feels right adjacent to. a follow up study was done on that $32.00 page study the last 4 pages or the chemicals that they have found. we have shown an association between organophosphate exposure as measured by those metabolites in the mother's urine during pregnancy and shortened just station

abnormal neonatal reflexes decreased mental development in the children and 2 years of age decreased i.q. at age 7 and 10 years of age pervasive developmental disorder which is like. symptoms. attention problems in schooling poor executive functioning in pre-adolescents and we have also shown that there are some populations of people that might be more affected than others i virtue of their genetics. protecting our kids from chemicals is a common sense thing that everybody can get behind leave points to examples in recent years of students getting sick from pesticides used by farmers near schools this is really great and several incidents in 2008 in why man koichi where dozens of students got sick after a pesticide was applied on a nearby seed corn plot we've seen example after example where we've had to rush

children from a public school to an e.r. like the ones i work in across the state for severe long problems we know that these chemicals have consequences they are major irritants there's no question otherwise why would the chemical company workers themselves be geared up and suited up what happened with why i'm a middle school was particularly egregious the state of hawaii department of agriculture does not do it with respect to investigating complaints about pesticide drift and for years this has been the case it doesn't monitor the air it doesn't monitor the water it doesn't monitor the soil to make sure that pesticides are not leaving the fields and going into where people live and play and work. as a mom i think about what would i do. if i had to send my child to school every day

alongside a field where i knew they were spraying pesticides but i didn't know when and i didn't know what. we require our kids to go to school why don't we require these companies to at least inform the parents or the school administrators what their spring when and where. so we started to ask questions like well what chemicals are they spray how do we manage run off an email to gary who is or asking him about it what we can do what how we could start a bill to get these chemical companies regulated so we can put a stop to it or at least find out what's going on this was a group of young people and they were saying gary can you do something about this issue gary started meeting with representatives of the seed company as they deny the use of that which was

a very potent herbicide that's questionable and banned in a lot of places they've clearly said they're not using accion and i was like well can you get records like how do we prove that they're not using those laws for the records that's when everything started to get interesting. the point that there was something going on the more i dug into it the more troubling it became. so you're telling me like you can't get the records so he goes along with i'm submitting freedom of information department of agriculture $600.00 in like 3 months but we got a list of $22.00 different restricted use pesticides many of those are banned in other states and other in other nations and above all there was actually in 3 different forms. these companies have lied to me personally and directly as a council member a number of questions live misled me they flat out lied and as we went through the process of these community meetings we slowly put together this bill will 2491 this is serious serious stuff that deserves our attention to submit deserves we don't

was now. from people who really were educated on what was going on and were concerned. it was a good way to make conscious decisions. how to deal with these companies it asks for buffer zones very minimal buffer zones much smaller than in other states around schools homes hospitals and shorelines and other sensitive areas there are 500 feet 100 feet around shorelines for pesticide disclosure including general use pesticides on a daily. basis from these companies as well as health and environmental impact study. to ask for simple protection and this closure is a is a human right really i think it's something that we're all entitled to know is. what are we breathing what's in the air what's in our water and how is it affecting us it's a violation of the most fundamental human right that people who are being subject

to experiments need to be fully informed of all the risks before they allow themselves to be a part of this experiment and that's what it entails. and june 20th actually it became public and then we had the 1st hearings and then the marathon hearings went out. today an estimated 2000 people inside and outside of the court a veteran center turned out for a pack passionate public hearing about bill $2491.00 cops were turning around to grab their chairs and thousands of people it was not what anybody expected orders dressed in red shirts wave signs of said stop poisoning for money they testify that large biotech companies shouldn't be allowed to keep the public in the dark about pesticide g.m.o. usage that they encountered pushback from opponents dressed in these blue shirts that said we are ag they are yet the proposal of the bad testing of experimental

pesticides dmoz infringes on their rights and would hurt the local economy the value of the biotech industry in hawaii has been grossly exaggerated the number of jobs that are involved in this industry is relatively small it's in the hundreds and then if you balance it against the impacts taking the best agricultural land in the state that could be used to grow food to feed a population well we are importing a large majority. of our food from somewhere else that's a big cost the cost on our health of having tons of posts this side sprayed every year on our soils into our water into the air that's a cost they're treating the island of quiet as if it were a business in liquidation there concerning it's as us to cash and they're promising a few years of pollution based prosperity it was looking like they were going to

pass the bill but on another large 4 to 6000 people and people surrounded the county council building and demanded for the bill to be the message you think might be easier to sell or this bill is not so new readers are due this bill is a community over this bill as you know your supporters say bill 2491 would stop poisoning in paradise a little later surely everybody oh it would sure. be a little longer they are. the you. know what you county council members voted to approve a controversial g.m.o. 1 just closure bill around 330 this morning when the bill passed it was

unbelievable there was just an overwhelming i mean there is tears it was joy there was every the can possibly imagine all of us and i get this call after we passed the bill mayor wanted to talk to us and he wanted to tell us before he told the rest of the world that he decided to veto the bill and call why the mayor has taken a bold stand against new g.m.o. regulations the fallout is intense some critics are calling mayor bernard value a sellout i think. right now we're still having to deal with that that's why. we need the world's help today the county council decided to override the mayor's veto of bill 2 for 91. this comes after an emotional battle on the garden aisle but there could be legal challenges ahead by january 10th 2014 we're being sued by far the largest chemical

companies in the world to be honest with you i wasn't surprised just in learning the the his chief of these companies this is what they're known for they do this all over the world use their money to bully communities it reveals the true intention of these companies that they obviously do have things too high. when the federal magistrate moved overturning to 491 it was a blow. this judge is telling me a quite county council member that i cannot protect my own community he's saying the state's responsible for doing that the state's not doing that so it's my responsibility and he's saying i can't and that may be more committed to find other ways to keep fighting this fight my heart hurts knowing that if you put out a live among are being exposed to these pesticides the truth is is that what you have changed and there really. no amount of buffer zones that are actually going to

protect us from pesticides that are airborne. he says her 3 year old son in law a kid and other koichi are sick from inhaling pesticides sprayed by large seed companies lasers are being handed out like candy to children almost all my friends have a nebulizer doctor issue at their home why the chemical companies are some of the strongest lobbyists that we have in congress yes i know there's an undue amount of influence they have but certainly. they spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year in lobbying and campaign funding to buy their way through congress.

oh ok you know ok. minus. the overhead. is that. in contrast. to. the book on those.

men. who get back. on the track even jazz often miles to. join me every thursday on the alex simon chill and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then. what do you do before you came here where did you work before you came here when you live well death row in many us states capital punishment is still practiced convicted prisoners can spend years waiting for execution and most of the time the victims' families they are very much in favor the death penalty there are some

people that because of what they did have given up the right to live among us somebody even proven innocent up to years on death row and how many more exonerations is it going to take before we as a society realize that this is not working and we actually do something. about. the chemical industry is dictating and manipulating the regulatory process at every level and what's happening and quiet is really a template for what they've already done to the rest of the country and what they want to do the whole world the reason we don't have better safety standards is because there's an absolute collusion and conflict of interests between those who are actually supposed to protect our safety and the fact that they actually have monetary interests with major biotech and pharmaceutical companies so for example let's consider linda fischer here was someone who was with the e.p.a. and then she went to join and become the head of government affairs at monsanto and

now she's a vice president of safety health and environment and chief sustainability officer dupont so her interests are not only to ensure the advancement of dupont but she also used to be at the e.p.a. and she understands all the loopholes busy within the e.p.a. to advise her organization of how to get through safety issues another example is terri medley here's a person who is an administrator at the u.s.d.a. and at the f.d.a. and now serves of the director of regulatory and external affairs of dupont corporation's agricultural enterprise you can also look at someone like clayton uter who is also at the u.s.d.a. and was a u.s. trade representative and he's on the board of my kitchen which is a wholly owned subsidiary of dow chemical but perhaps one of most egregious ones is michael taylor who was appointed by the obama administration prior to joining as deputy director of foods at the f.d.a. he was actually the head of science policy for months anto and the list goes on you have many of these people who have one foot into the biotech pharma and the other

foot in the government regulatory bodies i mean this kind of collusion is reprehensible and it's amazing that the legal infrastructure even allows it. the e.p.a. won't bancorp pyra fonts reversing efforts by the obama administration the c.e.o. of dow chemical the maker of the past aside here with the president potted the decision the company saying it is confident in the health and safety of its product .

these companies are criminal enterprises and the only way they can get away with what they're doing is by corrupting our political process. in addition to the importance of protecting our communities that live in these environments every day it's hypocritical turns can't bring any kind of fruit or any food from the mainland because of agriculture restrictions yet chemical corporations can experiment with genetically modified crops with pesticides that are bad throughout europe when you're looking at how we market our environment to millions and millions of people around the world and they have no idea that when they come here they may actually be being exposed to pesticides that are known to be toxic so why are we protecting a $200000000.00 a year industry for of experimental agriculture instead of a $15000000000.00 tourism industry i would say 40 close to 45 percent of our economic engine is centered around the tourism industry.

while the tourists come here. to come here. for our environment. our pristine waterfalls our pristine oceans and beaches. but the are coming year not knowing they'd be also maybe exposing themselves to the chemical drift or be restricted use pesticides not only in the air but it also has the sides that are on the ground. and when we have big storms and rain storms and we have storm flooding. all that waste water washes into the ocean and beaches which is the very same beaches that our tourists swim in

so a lot of the visitors unknowingly are also swimming in a cove of chemicals. in november of 2013 when koichi passed bill 2 for 91 it was the shot heard around the world and what you've seen since then in 201-520-1620 extension 17 is the inner duction of multiple bills all of which have tried to do you what bill 2491 fundamentally required the chemical companies to do. in 2017 alone we had 25 different bills and none of them passed and the question is why 2 things really that come to mind that have prevented forward movement one is you have

a tremendous amount of money in the political system you look at super pacs and national politics and think you know there's millions of dollars there but there's money at the local level too and it does have an impact. the department of agriculture has been front and center in opposing most of the measures that have been introduced of the legislature that seek better regulation of pesticides i think our state laws may have been great at one point in regulating traditional plantation agriculture but clearly now where we have experimental combinations of pesticides being used on a widespread basis clearly our regulations are inadequate i'm not aware of anybody having done an environmental impact statement that looks at the impacts of pesticides or genetically engineered crops on any resource on water quality on air quality on soil quality in hawaii you have a large number of endangered species and so it's particularly important in that

kind of environment to look at them more closely in the state is looking at them at all that governor has the power to make the statewide disclosure program mandatory he has the capacity to staff the pesticide branch to ensure that if there are pesticide violations that those are investigated in addressed within a timely manner what we're fighting for isn't just an environment that's safe from chemicals we're fighting for a political system that represents the interests of people and not profit the story of 2491 is the story of communities rising up against all odds.

we have to make our food movement a political movement to i believe that if every person who's chosen to buy local by . organic also chose to vote. and vote for candidates who supported their environmental vision that our political system which transformed to the future of a is at stake everything is at risk when we put profits over people our environment and our livelihoods our futures our children there how our ability to survive not just off of our lab and on our soil but our resources and our reach systems are under increasing pressure we have a responsibility to preserve our environment to protect our home and to ensure that we leave it better than we found it we can't keep poisoning our land we have to move forward to a real sustainable future for agriculture in hawaii one that creates more jobs more

food and gives us more sustainability than we've had for hundreds and so years. we will hold these corporations accountable right now they might be able to buy out our legislature but change is coming and when it does the corporations will be held accountable not just for what they did to our people but to what they left behind the degradation of our ecosystems the wiping out of species the complete disregard for human life and environmental health. if this continues there is no future for she is really working with them and evidently they don't really care about us we're just collateral. you to reach 30 years to before this house. i don't want to leave this home i don't have to give them the satisfaction of feeding me.

we are still front of our ancestors. lived here for well over a 1000 years did not just survive. the strife and chemicals be moved naturally and organically. it's michael to protect things that really are manifestations of my abscessed it's about protecting life and. the water that's all chair i can't sleep at night and call my sofa an educator and i'm there and a culture practitioner if i sit back and allow ireland to be misused and poison those things are not acceptable. it but my age are really starting to stand. there home where. you can never really lose when you're standing with the truth

when you look at the arc of human history it has been people's movements that have always change the world it hasn't been the democratic party the republican party or the labor party or wherever it is in power in any one of these countries it's been movements it's been people recognizing that they are the ones who change the world we just had 10 to 12000 people marched through the streets of. a march that has been a pivotal point in this movement that's united so many different groups. you would think from looking at these bottles that this was an isolated local group of activists creating problems but the real truth is this debate about environmental toxins in general and pesticides specifically is raging around the world country after country is becoming concerned about this issue so we're part of an international debate. just disease from the sea to the

people of these lanes and every day and rising up to restore balance and harmony to our island earth together we are stronger voices louder and the synergy of our actions more powerful.

in the well did in which they're all the americans that the chinese the indians the russians and said trust europeans can only read to be a player at that global top table by standing united and we are already united on the economic front and we increasingly understand that we have to do so also in the defense from. we had one man 3540 years old. the struggles in the water. some 30 fisherman well destroyed later and it's not. understood. that he's going to want to take another man the most of us he was stubborn and what

the machines of one thing. i believe that this is none of the therapy is. a charm. absurd really harsh things that happen in life. ringback but. after that forgot all about that.

that. was. the wrong announces it will put the roll back its compliance with the 2050 nuclear deal if steps are north taken within the next 10 days to shield it from the u.s. sanctions. a report about alleged u.s. cyber attacks on russia's power grid raises questions about by the dollar is being briefed. intelligence services on their operations. and 2 sisters in saudi arabia to the international community for asylum are reportedly suffering years of abuse at the hands of their parents in the kingdom a growing number of women looking for a way out of the.