Editor:
Are you aware?
BNSF Railway regularly applies pestcide in our communities.
The chemical glyphosate – trade name RoundUp – is a chemical herbicide that has been used previously to kill plants growing near the tracks and gravel area along the seafront walks, promenade and beyond.
This dangerous practice is scheduled to take place again during the first week of October, as advertised in Peace Arch News classifieds on Sept. 28.
Contrary to what BNSF or its environmental services agent might claim, chemical herbicides – which are pesticides – are hazardous to the environment and human health, and according to the Canadian Cancer Society, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, glyphosate and similar toxic chemicals are now considered likely carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.
Any slight breeze off the seas will cause the pesticide to drift, possibly well beyond the tracks, over walkways or up the slope where people, especially children, animals and plants are at risk.
Chemicals leach into the groundwater and the sea. Our drinking water, our aquifer and our beach and seafront, sea life ecosystem are all negatively affected by such careless chemical spraying.
We need to use alternative methods, not chemicals, and find solutions that are safe, environmentally friendly and risk free.
We need to work with nature and the earth.
This Thanksgiving, let’s be grateful that we are healthy and live in a healthy environment and community.
Cal Pawson, White Rock