The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) and the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) have extended their campaign to ban “neonic” pesticides – toxic chemicals Health Canada has linked to the death of bees in Quebec and Ontario.
It is Canada’s longest-running anti-neonic campaign organized by doctors and nurses. The David Suzuki Foundation and Ontario Nature are also key participants.
Central to the initiative are subway ads, which began in November and have now been extended to the end of April – nearly six months. The ads show an anxious child beneath the caption, ‘Doctors and Nurses say neonic pesticides hurt our bees and us.’
“Physicians believe neonics are a major threat to both nature and people,” says CAPE Executive Director Gideon Forman. “These poisons are fatal to bees and that means the chemicals are a threat to human nutrition – because bees pollinate about a third of our food.”
“This is a unique campaign because health professionals have teamed up with environmental groups to urge a ban on these toxic pesticides,” says Doris Grinspun, Chief Executive Officer of RNAO. “And it makes perfect sense because as nurses we know that if you kill bees – and endanger our food supply – you undermine human health.”
The campaign strategy includes holding meetings with key decision-makers in government and publishing pro-ban opinion articles in newspapers across Ontario. Recent polling suggests nearly four out of five Ontarians support the government’s proposal to reduce neonic use.
