Pesticides, Public Health, and Your Right to Know
Dole Plantation on the north slopes of Oʻahu are one of the parcels that reported concentrated use of restricted-use-pesticides (RUP). Photo Credit: HAPA Communications Organizer, Marie Hobro
Wahiawā, Whitmore Village, and Waialua are home to some of the heaviest use of pesticides in Hawaiʻi. These agrochemicals can migrate through the air, soil, and waterways –– and pose potential threats to public health and the environment.
Prior to 2019, there was no access to data or information as to what amount and which pesticides communities were being exposed to. In 2018, HAPA, the Protect Our Keiki Coalition, and affected communities successfully advocated for Act 45. This bill now requires users of restricted use pesticides (RUPs), a highly hazardous pesticide unavailable to the general public, to report their usage. The State of Hawaiʻi’s Department of Agriculture released the first RUP report a year later.
Since then, HAPA, Hawaiʻi Center for Food and Safety (CFS), and other members of the Protect Our Keiki Coalition have been working to analyze and sync the data into an online GIS map tool. This map tool will help communities learn about what RUPs they are being exposed to and their potential impacts.
To learn more about how this affects Central Oʻahu and what you can do about it, please join HAPA, Hawaiʻi SEED, Hawaiʻi Center For Food Safety, and ʻŌlelo Community Media for “Pesticides, Public Health, and Your Right to Know”. This community meeting will be held on Thursday, January 19th, 2023 from 5:30 PM-7:30 PM at Whitmore Community Park, Multipurpose Room A.
To RSVP for the event, please click this link or the button below.
HAPA is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3). | info@hapahi.org | (808) 212-9616 | P.O. Box 1534, Kapaʻa, Hawai`i 96746
