Over concerns for those who are seeking medical assistance at Boulder’s Foothills Hospital and instead may becoming more ill when exposed to chemical pesticides, several area organizations flooded the hospital with phone calls in April. The calls asked the hospital to discontinue its policy of applying the chemicals in early spring to its landscaping.
Hospital management responded. Boulder Community Hospital at Foothills announced that they would immediately change policy to use only organic substances on their landscaping at the hospital facility. This decision will prevent an application of chemical pesticides which had been scheduled for April 21, 2016.
Today groups such as the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center’s Citizens for Pesticide Reform, People and Pollinators Action Network, Bee Safe Boulder, Colorado Pesticide Reform Coalition, the Sierra Club and other groups presented hospital management with a banner of appreciation. Accepting the recognition was Robert Gance, Director of Facilities Management who told The Nation Report that, “Hearing about pesticides and watching them spray pesticides down really kind of woke me up here in Boulder to say, ‘should we really be doing this?'”
“This is a very significant and important step that the Foothills Hospital has taken, said Betty Ball from the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center’s Citizens for Pesticide Reform, they have definitely set an example which we hope other businesses and institutions in Boulder will follow.”
Exerting the hospital’s influence over other public entities was the hope also of Richard Andrews co-founder of Colorado Pesticide Reform Coalition (CPRC) who told The Nation Report, “I also asked them to help us reach out to other institutions-schools, public places-to try to encourage them to do the same thing and then overall we can make a much safer Boulder County.”
The CPRC attended the banner presentation and said, “We’re interested in a clean toxic-free world. That’s a real benefit to not only the natural world and the insects and the birds, but to the patients and the people who are coming here to get good healthcare and that they would not be inadvertently exposed to dangerous toxins when they’re going to a place to provide good health.”
Robert Gance finished by saying, “Now the grounds around the facility are safe for them.”
