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'8 booklet called "Pestici re ha con -- Nort 10 -- PORT PERRY STAR REAL ESTATE -- Tuesday, January 22, 1991 Happy New year to our school family! We hope and pray that 1991 may be a blessed year for each one of you and also for our school. Remember that the Lord's love is steadfast and endures forever. Read-a-thon Results: We have netted close to $3,000.00 - from our read-a-thon, and hope to buy some | The E nvironment | by Janet Banting PESTICIDES-INSECTICIDES-HERBICIDES special things for our school. Our first and biggest purchase will be a TV and VCR. Also, a hearty thank you to all the moms and dads who accom- panied us to the skating rink on the last day of school before the holidays. A good time was had by all? Kindergarten - Mrs. R. This is a topic | have been warding to cover for some . time, but have been putting off because is such a complex - one and because | do not consider myself anything like an ex- NY pert on it. | have been doing some reading on it lately, howev- Nor, and feel it is much too important an issue to just ignore. In || keeping with my usual style, \ the nature of the problem, and I'l use one column to report on the next one to offer readers suggestions about how to deal with it. & Sources I've consulted for this column are Barry Com- | moner's book "Making Peace with the Planet," Rachel Car- | son's "Silent Spring," and Garbage Magazine's Se t./Oct.'89 _ article "Natural Pest Controls: Are They Really Safer?" all of § which are available at the Scug © one who wants to look into this subject. I've also made use of Memorial Library for any- some newspaper clippings and an Environment Canada - The Right Amount" that | have in = my own file on insecticides/pesticides. 3 Historically speaking, chemicals have only been used ex- | tensively in agriculture for about forty years, since the end of \ the second world war. The production of synthetic chemical | compounds was an inexpensive proposition at that time, & since petroleum, from which they are derived, was both | cheap and plentiful. Since their development our reliance on | chemical fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides has become | so complete that many ple would find the idea of doing | without them almost unthinkable. This may be similar to the | unthinking reliance of many shoppers on commercial cleaning = products which are not necessarily su | loned methods, but which clever an © have convinced us we "need." rior to more old fash- successful advertisers : The problems that have developed as a result of our = over-reliance on synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides are numerous and disturbing. Ba Commoner's book states that the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S. attributes 20,000 additional cases of cancer in the U.S. annually to the fact that most people are § "exposed to pesticide residues...in nearly every food. done with Kansas farmers exposed study to herbicides found that they developed a six-to-eight fold increase in the incidence of cancer. Fertilizer run-off contributed to groundwater contami- nation and to high nitrate pollution in rivers and lakes. Wide- spread application of pesticides is responsible for the deaths & of not just the insects they target, but also fish, birds, and oth- = er forms of wildlife. According to a couple of newspaper articles | clipped | from the Toronto Star last | sand ril, between ten and twenty thou- people died {yes-died!] from misuses of pesticides in the | year 1989. A study done in Virginia by a firm that markets an = allergy test concluded that, "About 16 million Americans expe- | rience allergic reactions to pesticides, putting some at risk of & medical pr lems ranging from sniffles to death." 5 million are | highly allergic, the § moderate reactions. 3: New chemical pesticides are being & but too often the testing done on them cle stated, while 11 million have more roduced constantly, fore they are mar- = keted is inadequate. Even when one is found to be particular- & ly lethal and is banned {like DDT was in the early 70's}, in § many cases they continue to be exported to other countries. There they are used on crops grown for export and frequently find their way back to our tables in the foods we import from these countries! The 1987 "Our Common Future" tions states that "overuse of chem | threatens the health of humans and . Continuing long term exposure to pests, weeds, and fu the lives of other rt of the United Na- s to control insects, ticides and chemical residues in foods, water, and even in air, is hazardous, particularly to children." Accordi to the Environment Canada booklet "Pesti- cides - The ont Amount," some agronomists believe that al several altern tow that pesticides "once more ways been. They ure to be adopted only ead pesticide use could ensure used as they should have al- should be considered an emerge when growers do not have full control meas- over pests, and should not be used automatically or as a pre- ventive measure." Next week's column will offer some alternatives. Interest- ed people may want to have a look at some of the material mentioned above that is available at the rary. ested in attending the next meeting of the | chap #4 Growers are reminded that it will take Canadian Organ ace at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Janua Plorary's Program Room. Anyone who wis to attend! inter- of the 23 in the Whitby 8 to is welcome vanEyk: Memory work for the next few weeks will be Psalm 100, and our song of the week is related to this scripture passage - "He Has Made Me Glad." In the last weeks of 1990, we were doing some addition by use of munipulatives; now we will be taking the process a step further by writing down the equations. Our new special unit is one of my favorites - it's a nutrition one call- ed "Celebrating God's Gift of Food." Grades One and Two - Mrs. M. Libby: We have started a new social studies unit called "No Place Like Home" and I have ap- preciated the parents speedy response to the questionnaires sent home last week. The children have been using them quite a bit. Both grades one and two now have spelling words to learn each week. I am also very pleased to be having Mrs. Lois Ross come into our classroom two afternoons a week to assist in our reading/language activities. The Lord is certainly wonderful in His provisions! Grades Three and Four - Miss R. Kolkman: Beginning the new year, grade three and four seem- ed all refreshed and ready to get into the swing of things, though some math skills need a little ex- tra reviewing. In grade three the students will be able to take un- finished math work home but they must sign a contract, promising to return their math book each day, in good condition. In spelling we have become super sleuths by finding words with unique rules when adding a suffix. Every day we will award the super sleuth badge to the one who comes to school with the most words! Force From Page 1 rent crisis in the Gulf region. To suggest otherwise is to play into the hands of Saddam Hussein and his skilled propagandists," he stated. "Personally, I think we should be grateful that the United States has been willing to accept such a large portion of the responsibility. I also person- ally think that we in Canada might be grateful that we have such a nation as our neighbour. Canadians would be thinking quite differently if we lived be- side a regime such as that now governingin Iraq." He concluded his state- ment by saying that once hostil- ities are over in the Gulf, there is "no reason why Canada can- not play a significant peace- keeping role in the situation and in other parts of the world." Training From Page 1 etc) operation, and is currently in two different locations: one in "Stouffville and the other in Lea- side. * Almost all the students would live in area motels during their course of study, he said. He said the Institute will offer several advantages by lo- cating here: taxation, jobs, di- rect spending of the annual bud- get of about $3 million. Members of council greeted the plans with enthusiasm. "This is a tremendous op- portunity for the community. e (council) are quite agreeable to what you want to do and I will do all I can to work on your be- half," Mayor Howard Hall told the delegation. Hopefully, this week we will be able to skate at vanAndle's if the weather cooperates. Grade Five & Six - Mrs. C. Ashenhust: It has been great to get back into a regular routine. Everyone came back well rested and ready to work. Both grades are beginning new math units, in Multiplication, Division and Number Theory. The grade fives are reading "Shady's Fourth and Silent Witness" while grade six is ready 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."" Memory work this week is John 1'1-14. Grades Seven and Eight - Mrs. W. Guetter: January is here! The Christian School set for the New Year holidays were wonderful, but it is always good to return to the routine of school days too. This year in social studies we begin a unit on government - what it is and what its biblical basis is. Your children will be asking you some questions about govern- ment, we anticipate a good discussion. In February we plan to go to Fair Glen for a two day period. Total amount of students going is 35. Any parents who would like to come along as chaperones are welcome. More details will be sent home shortly. Complaints over truck noises reach council Scugog Township council may consider changing its by- laws after numerous com- plaints from Perry Glenn es- tates residents about the noise of truck motors at the Mother Jacksons food plant on Simcoe Streetin Port Perry. Ward 2 councillor Marilyn Pearce said Monday afternoon residents are fed up with the noise of heavy trucks at all hours of the night, and the fact they have been complaining since last August. Councillor Pearce told the council meeting a heavy truck pulled into the yard (at Mother acksons plant) at 12:30 AM Monday and kept its motor idling all night until the plant opened. Mayor Howard Hall said he has had several meetings with Mother Jackson officials over the complaints. He said the officials told him that the company has asked truckers to park on the north side of the plant if they have to leave their motors idling. 'The other noise problem is from trucks that fill the large flour tanks outside the plant. One letter to council de- scribed the sound of the revving engine like "that of an air- plane." Residents want this opera- tion (filling the flour and air tanks) limited to the hours of 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, a condition that company officials agreed to at a meeting last November. Mother Jacksons, which has been at the Simcoe Street location since the late 1960's, makes baked goods of all kinds, but mainly tarts and meat pies. The Perry Glenn subdivi- sion was approved in the early 1970's. During the discussion on this matter Monday afternoon, it was noted that the develop- ment agreement for the subdivi- sion calls for a buffer between the plant and nearby homes: a " chain link fence. Councillor Pearce said resi- dents of the subdivision are "very, very upset" about the noise. Back at work Scugog Area councillor Don Cochrane returned to official duties Monday afternoon, near- ly three weeks after he under- went surgery to replace a hip jointonJanuary 2. While he admitted he's still feeling the affects of the sur- gery, he said he expects to make a full recovery from the hip problems that have caused him pain for several years. Asked how he's feeling, he replied "Oh, about as well as can be expected." Fun at YWCA "Playschool," "Tiny Tots," "Playful Pets," 'Tickle Trunk," "Playhouse Pals," 'Nifty Turtles' and 'Preschool Drop" have all started up at the YMCA. At the schools last week we started Gymnastics, Ballet, Jazz, Aerobics and Floor Hockey too! But there's still room to register for these programs and you will be happy to note there is no GST on the children's classes or youth classes to pay. Starting this week there are more new.programs offered, like "Keyboa ,"' "Stage Struck," '"'Choices," '"'Self-Styled,"' '"'Babysitter Training,' "'Classical Yoga" and the "Parents Club." There are lots of spaces left in these classes but not much time to sign up so if you're interested, please give us a call at 985-2824. There's even more! Star- ting new this week at Prince Albert and Uxbridge, there is "Scensations" (a little theatre group), 'Sticky Fingers' (lots of creations), "Tiny Tots" (creative social) and 'Beginner Aerobics" at the Prince Albert Hall and '"'Miss Dress-up,' "Sticky Fingers," "Jelly Bears," "Tumbling Tots" and the "Babysitting" course all located in Uxbridge. Brochures are available at the Port Perry YM- CA and at Uxpool and you can call us anytime for information. Hope to see you soon! When business is good, it pays to advertise... When business Is bad, you've got to advertise!