Frank Conci wants to end the SIR program. (I disagree)

[Thinktank]

There's always potential for something to go wrong when spraying
on an orchard or even one tree in your backyard. The sprayer might need repair,
so you have to stop spraying and get in there repairing something - probably
get pesticides all over your hands where your body absorbs the stuff. The wind could suddenly
pick up and the pesticides could drift for miles. Mostly this would harm someone who is outside at the time - he'll breathe
the drift into his lungs. While spraying apples, the pesticide could go onto some cherries, that are being picked
that same day, or worse some unsuspecting farmworkers could get blasted with spray (it does happen sometimes)
After sspraying the equipment must be washed out, the pesticides residue goes into the ground where a pet
might drink the contaminated water and die. (happened once with a cow that died) Sometimes the paper
bag the pesticide comes in rips, and the stuff falls out onto the floor of the shed it is stored in where it
can contaminate in many different ways. There's always potential for something to go wrong
when spraying pesticides so imagine if you multiply this by ten or more times per year, per orchard
and all the backyard trees in the valley - there's a lot of potential for disaster. You don't hear a lot
about pesticides poisoning happening because modern pesticides are not very toxic in the short term,
but cause a lot of problems long term and NO RECORDS ARE EVER KEPT. So by the time cancers
might occur there's no way to know where it came from. Farmworkers are usually transient workers
so that's very convenient for an industry that uses pesticides.

So yeah - the SIR costs money. But snce the SIR is reasonably successful, the SIR people should get a bonus - maybe
$5,000 each. It's peanuts compared to the $millions BC Ferry is ripping us off. I have a feeling
BC Hydro is also doing something funny as well in the ripping off category.


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