Yeah for ”Safer spraying,” boo for ”Pesticide laws” (Voice, March 23). By regulating synthetic pesticides, officials in local communities exercise their responsibility to protect the health and welfare of their residents. In the June 1991 Supreme Court decision that permitted Casey, Wis., to regulate pesticides, the justices concurred: ”. . . (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act) implies a regulatory partnership between federal, state and local governments . . . it certainly does not equate registration and labeling requirements with a general approval to apply pesticides throughout the nation without regard to regional and local factors like climate, population, geography and water supply.”
The attached syllabus to the decision states: ”Nor is there any indication . . . that Congress felt that local ordinances rest on insufficient expertise and burden commerce.”
Who does Rep. Ewing represent-his chemical or citizen constituency in the U.S. Congress-when he sponsors this bill, a denial of local communities`
rights to regulate toxic pesticides?
