I have spent most of my professional life engaged in the profession of public health, so I am very interested in HB 19, a Pesticide Right-To-Know bill that would require on-site notification when pesticides are applied in public places. This concept of "right-to-know" is a central and critical concept in public health.  Just three years ago, in fact, the 50,000 member American Public Health Association passed yet another resolution supporting the concept of public right-to-know regarding hazardous materials including pesticides and related products.  The full resolution can be found at: http://www.apha.org/legislative/policy/2002/2002-5-know.pdf, however, I have taken several quotes from this resolution, which I present below:

     The American Public Health Association, building on existing policy statements on Right-To-Know information, reaffirms the importance of right-to-know programs and hazard reduction activities as an essential means to protect individuals and communities from the harm due to the release of hazardous chemicals and urges the vigorous defense of such existing programs and activities.

     The APHA reaffirms its strong support for worker and community right-to-know as an essential information tool for public health and safety improvements and affirms that information about hazardous conditions allows individual citizens as well as their elected representatives to make informed choices about their own and their community's health and safety and improves the prevention, recognition and treatment of conditions related to environmental exposures (while also recognizing that right-to-know laws are not
substitutes for effective regulation or a sweeping solution to all problems associated with toxic substances).

     The APHA reaffirms its strong support for existing local, state, and federal right-to-know laws and activities, open public records, and sunshine programs.

     The APHA calls upon government officials, facility owners and operators, and public health practitioners to recognize and act on the following principles....The right-to-know about chemicals in one's neighborhood or work-place or near one’s child's school is not only an important right in our democracy but a vital component of public health and should not be lightly abridged.

     The American Public Health Association opposes the arbitrary removal of and/or limitations on access to information and, in the event a determination is made to halt or limit public access to information, urges the establishment of required procedures to be followed to assure the maintenance of records for archival, scientific and historic purposes.

     For more information on HB 19 visit the Alaska Conservation Voters website
at: http://www.acvoters.org/legislation/2005/hb19/hb19.html.  Here is what they recommend...

---Please call the Senate Finance Committee and tell them that HB 19 is a high priority for you and your family. Tell them to schedule the bill as soon as possible!

---Call your senator to ask them to tell the Senate Finance Committee to schedule HB 19 soon. Go to www.legis.state.ak.us to find out how to contact your senator.

---Write a letter to the editor (for a sample letter email
Britt@akvoice.org)

---Pressure is especially needed on Senate Finance Co-Chairs Lyda Green and Gary Wilken. Contact information for all Senate Finance Members is listed below:

Senator Lyda Green, co-chair Senate Finance
Senator_Lyda_Green@legis.state.ak.us  877 465-6601
Senator Gary Wilkien, co-chair Senate Finance
Senator_Gary_Wilken@legis.state.ak.us 465-4714
Senator_Fred_Dyson@legis.state.ak.us
Senator_Bert_Stedman@legis.state.ak.us
Senator_Con_Bunde@legis.state.ak.us
Senator_Donny_Olson@legis.state.ak.us
Senator_Lyman_Hoffman@legis.state.ak.us
Thanks for supporting community health and Right-To-Know, and please visit
the Alaska Center for Public Policy website and blog!

Lawrence D. Weiss Ph.D., M.S.
Alaska Center for Public Policy

website: www.acpp.info
blog:    www.acpp.info/blog