Fearing health risks, group pushes Irvine to use organic pesticides

Kardena Pauza, a mother of two young children, was perplexed when she noticed a large bump on her almost 3-year-old son’s forehead last summer.

“It looked like he smacked into something pretty hard, but it was odd because there was no bruising, no scratching and nobody knew that he hit anything,” Pauza, a 12-year resident of Irvine, recalled this month. She had the boy examined, and after a CT scan, Pauza and her husband were horrified to learn the mass was a cancerous tumor.

Her son’s treatment is continuing and his prognosis is good. But the illness led the family to question its possible cause.

“We started looking at our environment and where toxins could be coming from,” said Pauza, 37. “It was the most baffling thing, since we eat healthier than anybody I know.”

They quickly focused on the neighborhood park where the boy played every day.

Neighbor Laurie Thompson had the same suspicion five years ago when her daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor at 14 months old. At the time, the girl was still breast-feeding and weaning on organic foods. Thompson took her to the nearby park every day.

The girl is now a healthy 6-year-old attending kindergarten. But the fear remains.

“We will never know what caused her cancer, other than bad luck,” said Thompson, who has a professional background in child development. “But I do know that pesticides can cause cancer and I know that it can cause cancer in children.”

Pauza and Thompson are among at least three sets of parents in their Quail Hill subdivision dealing with pediatric cancer. Turning suspicions to action, neighbors banded together to lobby local homeowners associations and public schools to use organic pesticides — those made without synthetic chemicals.

Now, Non Toxic Irvine, the grassroots organization founded in September, wants the city of Irvine to adopt organic pesticides in all public areas, parks, athletic fields and city-maintained landscaping — and government leaders are listening.

After meeting with the group last month, City Councilwoman Christina Shea placed an item on the council’s Feb. 23 agenda to consider a citywide movement toward organic pesticides.

“I was very enthusiastic to work with these parents that are really out there trying to make a change in our community and our environment,” said Shea, a cancer survivor. “I support it 100%.”

Already, Non Toxic Irvine has persuaded several homeowners associations and the Irvine Unified School District to stop using certain pesticides that contain the chemical glyphosate. It’s the active ingredient in hundreds of products, including the popular Roundup weed killer, which Irvine Unified stopped using after meeting with the group in November.

“There’s this notion that this stuff is applied in one area, and don’t worry about it because the kids will never go over there,” said Non Toxic Irvine board member Ayn Craciun. “But the truth is, it will move to where the kids are, they’ll bring it in on their shoes and they’ll be exposed to it over a long period of time inside the house.”

Craciun, also a Quail Hill resident, got involved in the issue as the mother of two school-age children who has experienced multiple miscarriages while living in Irvine.

The school district further instituted a pilot program at Plaza Vista Middle School to use primarily organic pesticides based on a program used in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 17 years.

The organic pesticide movement has detractors, however. Though some studies suggest glyphosate is linked to cancer, others indicate there’s no hard science to prove it. Glyphosate is approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency but is listed as a “probable carcinogen” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, based in France.

Monsanto Co., which produces Roundup, filed suit against the state of California last month in an effort to prevent glyphosate from being listed as a cancer-causing chemical. The company claims the state is basing its decision solely on a “flawed” classification by the IARC and ignores other agencies like the EPA that approve the chemical.

“The overwhelming conclusion of experts worldwide has been that glyphosate, when used according to label directions, does not present an unreasonable risk of adverse effects to humans, wildlife or the environment,” Monsanto said in a statement to the Daily Pilot.

Bruce Blumberg, professor of developmental and cell biology at the UC Irvine schools of pharmaceutical sciences and biomedical engineering, scoffed at the company’s position.

“When there’s any question, you’d like to see producers err on the side of safety over profits,” he said.

Blumberg was recruited by Non Toxic Irvine to speak at the Feb. 23 City Council meeting.

Noting Irvine’s status as “America’s safest city” based on violent-crime statistics, Thompson, who serves on the Non Toxic Irvine board, wants community safety to be all-encompassing.

“I think there are hidden toxins that we have here in Irvine that make it not the safest city,” Thompson said. “I would like to see Irvine live up to its reputation and truly become a safe city for everyone.”