LIHU‘E — Speakers, including a retired weed-control expert from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, voiced pros and cons Thursday for a proposed resolution by a Kaua‘i County Council committee to ban the use of Roundup to control weeds at
LIHU‘E — Speakers, including a retired weed-control expert from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, voiced pros and cons Thursday for a proposed resolution by a Kaua‘i County Council committee to ban the use of Roundup to control weeds at county parks and along county roadsides.
Whether Roundup, a product made by Monsanto Company and which is touted as the most popular non-selective herbicide in the world, should be continued to be used dominated the meeting of the council’s Parks and Public Works Committee at the historic County Building.
Dr. Philip Motooka, the retired UH weed-control expert, said Roundup is safe to use, is not carcinogenic, and will not cause damage to the environment.
“For scientists, this is no controversy. For lay people, there is a problem,” Motooka said during a break in the committee meeting.
But opponents of the resolution, like Claire Mortimer, a medical authority with credentials from Yale University, said the use of Roundup poses a continued threat to humans.
Roundup contains glyphosate, an active ingredient in the defoliant that is toxic, and a surfactant named POEA, which is more toxic that glyphosate, Mortimer said.
She claimed Roundup has been linked to asthma, forms of leukemia, testicular cancer, kidney cancer, birth defects, liver cancer, lung dysfunction, other life-threatening diseases and genetic damage.
Others like Dr. Carl Berg, the lead scientist for the Hanalei Watershed Hui, said glyphosate has been tested and cleared for use. But other studies show the surfactant has proven to be more toxic than glyphosate, can get into the food chain and cause harm to humans.
In light of the public comments, some committee members said it might be more prudent to revise the resolution.
Committee members said they would look at options that include terminating or reducing the use of Roundup.
Another option calls for combining the use of Roundup with other herbicides, and using brush-cutters and weed-whackers as well to remove weeds.
All the council members said they wanted more information before making a decision on a resolution.
Motooka recommended employing a “drizzle-spraying” to do the job.
He said the method, used successfully for a project in Koke‘e, calls for sprinkling higher concentrations of Roundup on weeds, followed up by less reliance on the herbicide as the weeds are brought under control and grow closer to the ground.
Periodic maintenance will result in less use of Roundup down the road, Motooka said.
Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura said she likes that option, and called as well for the county to improve its weed-management programs, including instituting more training for county workers.
Motooka, whose expertise on weed control was sought by the council committee, said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified the defoliant, and has determined it “is not carcinogenic.”
Motooka said Roundup doesn’t accumulate biologically, becomes non-mobile when it gets into the soil, and is not volatile, meaning that spray doesn’t drift and land on passersby after it is applied.
American Cancer Society leaders and national medical and health experts have stated that pesticides do not cause cancer.
“Age is the number-one cancer risk,” Motooka said. Through studies, two Oxford (University) epidemiologists have stated that “the cause of cancer is diet and tobacco,” he said.
Motooka also said numerous scientific studies have confirmed his convictions that Roundup is safe to use.
Motooka said the public labors under two major misconceptions about weed control. One is that herbicides and pesticides are extremely dangerous, he said.
The other is that mechanical control of weeds is safe. Buying equipment and using county workers for weed removal is costly, and opens the workers, who would be clearing weeds on public roads, to the risk of being hit by vehicles.
Lincoln Ching and Les Milnes, two ranchers from the Kawaihau District, said they have never gotten ill from using Roundup, and that using machinery and defoliants have helped them operate their ranches in the most cost-effective ways possible.
Both men spoke against the current resolution, saying a revision should be sought.
Also speaking against the current resolution was Larry Rodriguez, branch manager of BEI and a resident of Kapa‘a.
He said Roundup is almost two times safer than table salt, and that Burn/Out, described as an expensive organic defoliant that has been successfully used on Kaua‘i, has more toxicity than Roundup.
Speaking in favor of the no-spray resolution, Mortimer said she has received hundreds of studies about Roundup from “scientists and medical professionals from all over the country.”
She said studies show there is a link between medical problems and cancer from exposure to Roundup.
Roundup has the same insidious impact as smoking, Mortimer said. Exposure to either will bring health problems, possibly death, Mortimer said.
Fifteen percent of the people of Hawai‘i have asthma, and the use of Roundup by county workers will aggravate the condition of those folks, Mortimer claimed.
Also intending to speak in favor of the resolution was Peggy Kadey, a Kapa‘a resident who is chemically sensitive. Both she and her husband, Ron, lead the Kauai Network for the Chemically Injured.
Lester Chang, staff writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@pulitzer.net.
