The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a corporate-controlled advocacy group, is circulating legislation throughout the country that would eliminate a local government's ability to control pesticide "registration, notification of use, advertising and marketing, distribution, applicator training and certification, storage, transportation, disposal, disclosure of confidential information, or product composition." This legislation leaves communities defenseless against the risks of toxic pesticide exposure from unsafe application methods, poisonous ingredients, and genetic crop modifications. Most alarmingly, the bill would even limit a community's right to know about such risks. Keeping communities in the dark is part of a system of pesticide regulation that ALEC calls "safe, effective and scientifically sound." We know better.

Ran 6/10/02, 3/1/04