Recalling the recent thread on safe rat poison, Tweeters may be
interested in Washington State House Bill 1602, scheduled for a hearing
this Wednesday (Feb. 26) at 6 PM in the Labor and Commerce Committee
(John O'Brien office bldg, Olympia).

> This bill, pushed by the Chemical Specialties Manufacturing
> Association, would effectively prohibit state and local government
> agencies from giving out information on consumer product substitutes
> or household hazardous wastes. It would specifically bar
> recommendations about using anything as a pesticide unless the product
> was registered with EPA as a pesticide -- thus, non-chemical pest
> controls or soaps, etc.
>
> In other words, no government agency in Washington would be able to
> provide information about environmentally-friendly cleaning products,
> integrated pest management, using latex rather than oil paint, etc.
> For example, when Seattle residents bring in cans of paint,
> pesticides, etc, to the Household Hazardous Waste unit of the Solid
> Waste department for disposal, the folks working there would not be
> able to suggest alternatives for future use unless they were
> registered with the EPA. If there are safer alternatives to rat
> poison, no one in government would be able to tell you about them.
> (Just think if the US government were prohibited from talking about
> the dangers of cigarettes.)
>
> There was a short hearing already, at which Seattle, King County, the
> American Lung Association, the Washington Toxics Coalition, and the
> Tilth Society among others opposed the bill. The Chlorox Co. and
> Chemical Specialties Manufacturers Assn. favored it.
>
> You can get bill text and legislator info at
> http://www.leginfo.leg.wa.gov. (This site was not working for me this
> morning, but hopefully it will come back up.) You may want to go to
> the hearing, write a letter, or contact your legislator or committee
> members --- most of the bill's sponsors and the committee members are
> from central and eastern Washington (three are from the Yakima
> Valley). You can write the Committee Chair, Cathy McMorris
> (R-Colville) at P.O. Box 40600, Olympia WA 98504-0600. Other committee
> members: Honeyford (R-Sunnyside), Conway (D-Tacoma), Wood (D-Spokane),
> Boldt (R-Vancouver), Clements (R-Yakima/Selah), Cole (D-Shoreline),
> Hatfield(D-Raymond), Lisk (R-Zillah). Bill sponsors are Schoesler
> (Adams, Whtman county), Huff (Kitsap, Pierce county), Chandler
> (Kittitas), and committee members Lisk, Clements, and Honeyford.
>
>
> Thanks,
> Mike Seamans
> Seattle