Document baVpa9BLnmZe2nLgNL1V2Rzm6

Mary Jo Smith P.O .Box 511 Waldport, Oregon 97394 (541) 563-3334 May 14, 2006 Jessica Hamilton, Natural Resources Policy Advisor Governor's Office 900 Court Street, N.E. Salem, Oregon 97301 Dear Jessica, Thank you for taking our petition seriously and ensuring the Governor's attention to it. We hope that his concern will not be limited solely to consideration by PARC. In our own and many others' experience, PARC has been totally ineffective, except in well-documented, blatant cases of acute pesticide exposure. Consistently, PARC has exploited the lack of data on exposure and health effects of pesticides to the benefit of the agri-chemical industry and the extreme detriment of public health (see e.g., http ://www.eueeneweeklv.com/2006/03/16/coverstorv.htmll. For example, in 1980 PARC rejected a U.S. Centers for Disease Control proposal to study the effects of the widely-used Agent Orange ingredient 2,4-D on unborn children in our county, after a preliminary CDC survey found greatly increased central nervous system birth defects in sprayed areas of Lincoln, Benton, and Lane Counties (Speusloff, Claude, "PARC shifts study emphasis," Capital Press, December 12,1980). Had PARC not rejected the CDC's proposal (in favor of an industry-supported study with no relevance to the chronic exposures experienced locally), the prenatal effects o f chronic exposure to dioxin-contaminated 2,4-D might have been known and acted upon sixteen years ago, and the suffering, deformities, and deaths o f many o f our citizens prevented. In the spirit of the Governor's April 4, 2006 proclamation designating May, 2006 as TOXIC INJURY AWARENESS AND EDUCATION MONTH, we therefore request that the Governor respond to the substance of our petition beyond token referral to PARC. At the very least, we request he demonstrate his concern, and his commitment to his proclamation, by attending the community meeting in Waldport on May 27, and ask your help ensuring that our request is brought to his personal attention. I am placing a hard-copy of this letter in the mail to you tomorrow, along with relevant documents highlighting our concerns. Thank you, Mary Jo Smith 1. *Sma&h,