TERRIFIC NEWS FROM THE NO SPRAY COALITION
www.nospray.org


No Spray Settlement of Lawsuit against Giuliani, et. al.
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Feds Approve, and Judge Daniels Signs Agreement on April 12, 2007
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New York City admits that pesticides remain in the environment beyond
their intended purpose and may cause adverse health effects
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For seven years, the No Spray Coalition has battled the City of New
York in Federal Court in opposition to the Giuliani administration's
massive and indiscriminate spraying of toxic pesticides, including Malathion.

On April 12, a federal judge signed a settlement agreement in which
New York City admits that the pesticides sprayed may indeed be
dangerous to human health as well as to the natural environment.

The settlement agreement states that, contrary to the City's prior
statements, pesticides may remain in the environment beyond their
intended purpose, cause adverse health effects, kill mosquitoes'
natural predators, increase mosquito resistance to the sprays, and
are not presently approved for direct application to waterways.

Mitchel Cohen, the coordinator of the No Spray Coalition and an
individual plaintiff in the lawsuit, sees the settlement agreement as
a "tremendous victory" for health and environmental advocates.

"Thousands of New Yorkers were made seriously sick by the spraying,"
Cohen said. "A number of members of our coalition, including several
of the plaintiffs, died from pesticide-related illnesses. Many suffer
from Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) or Asthma caused or
exacerbated by the spraying. We are very glad that the new City
administration has to some degree acknowledged that pesticides are
extremely dangerous to human health. They need to be rejected as a
way of killing mosquitoes."

"In particular," Cohen continued, "the use of insect repellents
containing DEET should never be used, especially on children."

Another plaintiff in the lawsuit, artist Robert Lederman, noted that
in 1999 and 2000, then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and other City
officials claimed that the spraying was "safe" and was used as "a
last resort" in its effort to kill mosquitoes said to be vectors for
West Nile encephalitis.

"This agreement represents the latest rebuff to the notion that
Giuliani was a good Mayor," Lederman said. "In 1999 and 2000, while
repeatedly spraying the population of NY with pesticides derived from
Nazi-era nerve gasses, Giuliani appeared in daily press conferences
claiming that the chemicals were completely harmless. The City of NY
has now admitted that these chemicals are harmful, that they persist
in the environment and that much more caution will have to be used if
they decide to ever spray them again."

Attorneys for the No Spray Coalition -- Joel Kupferman, of the NY
Environmental Law and Justice Project, and Karl Coplan and Daniel
Estrin, of PACE Environmental Litigation Clinic, announced that as
part of the settlement the City agreed to pay $80,000 to five
grassroots environmental and wildlife rehabilitation groups and meet
with the plaintiffs in several sessions to review an extensive list
of concerns that the Coalition provided. The Plaintiffs are not
permitted, under the terms of the Clean Water Act, to receive a
monetary settlement themselves.

Members of the Coalition say that the resolution of the lawsuit
begins a new phase in its activities. In its letter of concerns to
the City, which is an attachment to the lawsuit settlement, the No
Spray Coalition seeks to win official approval for its proposed
"Community Environment and Health Council," with members drawn from
the plaintiffs, the City, and health care professionals,
environmental organizations, advocacy groups, non-toxic pesticide
applicators and other pesticide-conscious parties.

Cohen said that if the City approves the proposed Environment and
Health Council in further negotiations with the No Spray Coalition,
the new Council would "make recommendations on environmental health
impacts of pesticide use and alternatives, hear from (and possibly
include) neurotoxicologists, neuropsychologists, non-toxic pest
control experts, wildlife rehabilitators; analyze toxicological
samplings, and submit findings to review by occupational and
environmental health case providers and advocates."

The Council would also sponsor public meetings before pesticides are
used, at which the DOH and other public officials must attend and be
available to answer questions, Cohen said. It would "review and
propose alternative, nontoxic control of mosquitoes; critique the
city's official mosquito control plan and offer new plans to replace
adulticides with safe materials; assess agents chosen with regard to
interaction with all toxins in our living environment, and then test
agents in combination with them for synergistic or cumulative impact
on health and environment.

"Additionaly, it would review transportation, storage, and financial
ramifications of pesticides; develop and publicize substantive and
"least harmful" application guidelines for any chemicals the City
seeks to apply to the environment; access all NYC information on
health concerns for pesticides and other chemicals; establish a
liaison to the NY City Council Committee of Health and Environment
and be added as non-voting, adjunct members to that City Council committee."

Cohen said that while he hopes that the City would approve the
proposal to establish the Health and Environmental Council, he
recognizes that "it will probably take another prolonged struggle to
achieve that, the next step in our fight to make the City accountable
environmentally and health-wise to the people subjected to these toxins."

Cohen added that he sees the terms of the Settlement Agreement as
helpful to those fighting against pesticide spraying elsewhere.
"Indeed, we consulted with many organizations not only in the U.S.
but in Canada and Mexico as well," Cohen said, "and we negotiated
clauses in the Agreement with the needs of other locales in mind."

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were: the No Spray Coalition, National
Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides, Disabled in Action, Save
Organic Standards - New York (by its president, Howard Brandstein),
and individual plaintiffs Valerie Sheppard (deceased), Mitchel Cohen,
Robert Lederman, and Eva Yaa Asantewaa.

website: www.nospray.org
hotline: 718-670-7110
email: editor@NoSpray.org