Cape Breton Landowners Against the Spray
Organization profile published 1977
Year Published: 1977
Resource Type: Organization
Cx Number: CX465
A description of the battle between the Cape Breton Landowners' Association and Nova Scotia Forest Industries Ltd. over the saftey and effectiveness of spraying for spruce budworm on Cape Breton Island.
Abstract:
Connexions has published multiple abstracts on the Cape Breton Landowners Against the Spray.
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This abstract was published in Connexions Digest in 1977:
This action group has organized in response to a high pressure campaign by Nova Scotia Forest Industries Ltd., (NSFI) to convince Nova Scotians that Cape Breton faces economic disaster unless its forests are spryed at once with spruce budworm spray.
NSFI claims that at least fifty percent of the forest in Cape Breton (and also related employment) is threatened unless spraying begins soon. The land owners' group replies by claiming that it takes three to five years of budworm infestation before severe damage occurs. The group also claims that there is at least a forty year supply of wood in cape breton. Moreover, they predict that the budworm infestations collapsed in 1927 and 1958, without spraying and without severe damamage.
Financially, the spray could prove to be extremely costly -- $4 million per year indefinitely -- and the taxpayer will be involved in paying in the end. In addition to the economic costs, the spraying will also involve severe ecological and health risks. Last year alone, spruce budworm sprays in New Brunswick killed six million birds. Spraying inevitably plays havoc with nature by disrupting the ecological cycle and causing immeasurable damage.
NSFI claims that spraying is not harmful to human health. However, the landowners' group claims there are two seperate dangers invovled: the insecticide itself and its emulsifier. The emulsifier has been linked to Reye's syndrome, a rare but often fatal children's disease. Recently, the company changed to a new brand of emulsifier which the landowners' group claims is not chemically different from the origional. The use of the insecticide itself is extremely hazardous leading to various nervous disorders as well as potentially to cancer.The group is presently conducting a letter-writing campaign to government officials.
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This abstract was published in Connexions Digest in 1981:
This group opposes the Spruce Budworm Spray Program in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
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This organization no longer exists.
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