Woodbury neighbors,

Five years ago, hundreds of you rallied in our community on behalf of our children, families, and pets to speak out against the spraying toxic pesticides in Woodbury. Following the move by the City of Irvine to move to non-toxic products, we successfully petitioned for our HOA to also move to non-toxic products in our community.

You can read our original petition here: 

https://www.change.org/p/woodbury-hoa-stop-spraying-woodbury-with-toxic-pesticides

Sadly, we recently learned that our HOA Board of Directors voted to resume spraying toxic pesticides with known carcinogens and active ingredients found in chemical warfare in places where we take walks and let our kids and pets play. We must again speak out to protect our families.

They have begun spraying the blue areas this month. 

Specifically, they have resumed the spraying of:

- SpeedZone: shares 50% of the active ingredient used in Agent Orange (used during the Vietnam War, caused widespread cases of cancer and congenital disabilities)
- RoundUp: active ingredient is glyphosate, classified as a known carcinogen by the State of California and a probable carcinogen by the World Health Organization

* Note that on August 17, 2022, the day of the recent HOA Board meeting, they announced that they stopped using RoundUp and moved to using a different toxic pesticide called LifeLine. We will continue to look into this but unfortunately, it is not a non-toxic alternative and the active ingredient glufosinate is highly persistent with a half-life of 3-70 days, found on plants up to 120 days after treatment. The US EPA classifies the chemical as "persistent" and "mobile" based on its lack of degredation and ease of transport through the soil. 

Here's what we know about toxic pesticides:

• Exposure to these and other pesticides has been linked to cancer, lower IQ, infertility, miscarriages, congenital disabilities, ADHD, asthma, autism, Alzheimer's, and other serious illnesses
• American Academy of Pediatrics says there is NO SAFE LEVEL of pesticide exposure for children
• Pesticides are toxic chemicals — poisons designed to kill. They are dangerous for all living things, including adults, pregnant women, and especially babies and children
• 50% of a person's lifetime pesticide exposure occurs during the first 5 years of life
• Pesticide spray can drift for miles and can be tracked indoors by shoes and pets, persisting in carpet fibers for up to a year
• In clay soils like ours, the half-life of glyphosate can be as long as 22 years

For all of these reasons, the City of Irvine and the Irvine Unified School District made the move to non toxic over 6 years ago.

We ask the Board to immediately stop spraying, realign with our city and our schools, and stand on its previous decision to not spray toxic pesticides.   

This petition will be sent to the current Board of Directors, our management company, Keystone Pacific, and the new Board candidate.

Please stand with us again and sign this petition. Share with your neighbors and friends by word of mouth, email, text message, and social media to help educate others so we can gain as many signatures as possible. 

The next board meeting is August 17th at 4:30pm at the Recreation Center. Sign this petition and join us at the board meeting. 

Let's make this right for our children, families, and pets. 

Anu, Orlando, Azusa, Bryan, Emily & Will