See PANUPS updates service, for complete information.

PANUPS: Check Out Our New Look
June 16, 2005

Welcome to the new PANUPS! Along with our new look, we have increased our capacity to offer you quick and secure ways to take action-sign a petition, write or fax a letter, or even telephone a decision maker. This format takes advantage of the new web-based tools to deliver your opinion and perspective to the desks (and in-boxes) of people you want to influence. We also offer a convenient “tell a friend” function so you can instantly pass along these opportunities to take action and build the pesticide reform movement.

This new format also allows us to send photos and other images along with our news stories and analyses. Please let us know if your email application has any difficulty with our new format, images or functions (you can contact us by clicking on the apple image marked “problem or suggestion” below).

Our new capacity to provide action opportunities through PANUPS is part of PAN North America’s upgraded PAN Alerts system. Since March we have been sending short and to-the-point messages with actions to take on pesticide related issues. We are now providing this service on a selective basis to PAN North America Affiliates and partners-our network of allied organizations in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. (we are able to tailor actions to specific regions, states or legislators).

As you may have noticed, several recent PANUPS have included links to our new PAN Alerts, bringing additional background information to support the actions you take. We expect more of these tandem PANUPS will be coming your way, and we would like to hear from you about how they are working (again, just click on the “suggestion” apple below).

However. PAN Alerts are not always tied to a PANUPS article, so if you would like to participate more fully in this new service and don’t already receive PAN Alerts, please follow the link below to our Action Center, where you can sign up for both Alerts and PANUPS, including information and updates tailored to where you live. We also promise to keep you posted about results of your actions with periodic updates to PAN Alert subscribers. To start that process, here are some of the results of actions so far:

Cleanup and Clean Water for Bhopal

This action sent letters to officials in Madhya PradeshIndia, asking them to provide adequate supplies of drinking water for Bhopal residents. Since then the Madhya Pradesh officials have received close to 1,000 letters. Separately, in recent weeks local officials have begun to take steps to contain the toxic chemicals remaining at the abandoned plant, but have failed to provide workers with protective equipment or a safe plan for temporary containment of the contamination. Bhopal activists demonstrated in support of the workers, and continue to press the Madhya Pradesh government for safe cleanup and clean water. The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB) is asking U.S. courts to hold Union Carbide/Dow Chemical responsible for complete clean up of the site.

Read more: International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal

Bayer Will Discuss Lindane

Lindane, a toxic pesticide banned in 52 countries, is still allowed for use in the United States. Thanks to pressure from PAN members’ emails and phone calls to Bayer, the major distributor of lindane in the country, Bayer has now agreed to meet with PAN to discuss the potential elimination of this toxic pesticide.

Read more.

Public Outcry Forces EPA to Cancel Study

Members of PAN and many partner organizations signed petitions and sent letters to stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plans for an industry-financed study that would expose infants and children to pesticides. Not only did your signatures help to postpone the study, the issue caught the attention of Senator Barbara Boxer, who made this a major issue in the nomination of Stephen Johnson to head the EPA, forcing him to completely cancel the study! Read more. [Link to read more page with a couple articles about the issue]

Read more.

PANUPS is a weekly email news service providing resource guides and reporting on pesticide issues that don’t always get coverage by the mainstream media. It’s produced by Pesticide Action Network North America, a non-profit and non-governmental organization working to advance sustainable alternatives to pesticides worldwide.

You can join our efforts! We gladly accept donations for our work and all contributions are tax deductible in the United States. Visit http://www.panna.org/donate.