Tuesday’s IUSD meeting is expected to be a crowed affair as hundreds of parents are expected to attend to express concern with routine use of Roundup and other toxic pesticides on Irvine campuses.
Ground maintenance staff at all IUSD campuses regularly use carcinogenic chemicals, including Roundup and one of the main components of Agent Orange on and around play and classroom areas at the schools. IUSD recently ordered that use of Roundup be temporarily suspended around play areas, but it is still used in non-play areas and the other chemicals are still in use. And even when the warning signs are posted, pets and people are often seen cutting through campus fields often adjacent to public parks.
IUSD currently uses Roundup Pro-Max, Pendulum Aqua Cap, Speedzone Southern Syngenta, and Fusilade II. The active ingredient in Roundup is glyphosate, which was recently declared a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as the American Cancer Society. Additionally, Speedzone’ active ingredient is 2,4-D, which is a component of Agent Orange. The board will learn of non-toxic and organic products use by businesses and other schools, which cost less or are about the same as non-toxic pest control practices currently employed by the district.
For more information, there’s a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/IrvineSchoolsPesticideFree.
I’m hoping some discussion will be asking the USD trustees and the Superintendent about the truckloads of soil removed from the Portola High School site; unanticipated chemicals were found which IUSD says here non-hazardous but were removed as a precaution. To that we say, if the chemicals in the soil weren’t hazardous, why remove it?