Daily News Transcript (Norwood, Mass.), June 11, 2007

GROUPS CHALLENGING STATE PLANS TO USE HERBICIDES

[Rachel's introduction: "We're practicing a precautionary principle. We believe risks don't need to be taken because there are other methods to try to get rid of weeds."]

By Greg Duggan/Daily News stafff

Opposition has sprouted to a state highway department plan to spray herbicides along roads.

The spraying, set to begin in August, affects 17 interstates and state routes in 57 cities and towns, including Norwood and Walpole.

"We don't apply (herbicides) in sensitive areas," said MassHighway press secretary Erik Abell. "It's primarily for vegetation management along medians on highways in order to control invasive species of vegetation."

Abell said the spraying locations are along thin medians or Jersey barriers.

"It's predominantly in high-speed locations where stopping to use mechanical methods to treat would be a less safe work environment," Abell said.

The spraying will occur, Abell said, "on less than one-half of 1 percent" of all roads treated by MassHighway during the year.

For two environmental groups, however, even a fraction of a percent is too much.

The Toxics Action Center of Boston and the Hilltown Anti-Herbicide Coalition of Ashfield have joined forces against the spraying as the Massachusetts Coalition for Pesticide Reduction.

The coalition has pointed to studies linking herbicides to health problems including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and birth defects. It is reaching out to residents to form local opposition.

Dan Dilworth, organizer for the Toxics Action Center, acknowledged, "There have not been any documented effects (from the state's spraying) so far. Many problems with (herbicides) don't usually come out until years after they're used. We're practicing a precautionary principle. We believe risks don't need to be taken because there are other methods to try to get rid of weeds."

Dilworth cited hand cutting as an alternative.

Ken Kipen of the Hilltown Anti-Herbicide Coalition could not be reached for comment.

Asked about the risk of a motorist striking a worker, Dilworth responded that a worker using herbicides could "develop some kind of disease" years later.

"Our opinion is that the use of herbicides is a greater risk than mechanical cutting," Dilworth said.

MassHighway stopped spraying herbicides in the late 1990s after hearing health and environmental concerns. Abell said chemicals were brought back in 2004 for safety reasons.

Abell said when MassHighway sprays herbicides, it uses substances available at hardware stores and dilutes the concentration before spraying. He said spraying does not occur in windy weather.

Affected communities include Foxborough, Norwood, Sharon and Walpole along Rte. 1 and Interstate 95, as well as Mansfield on I-95. Natick will undergo spraying on Rte. 9, as will 14 communities along Interstate 495.

The public comment period runs from June 25 through Aug. 8. Comments should be sent to the Department of Agricultural Resources, 251 Causeway St., Boston, MA, 02114-2151.

Daily News staff writer Greg Duggan can be reached at 781-433-8355 or gduggan@cnc.com.

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