New California ballot initiative could create a utopia for non-evidence based science
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Fringe science could potentially become the law of the land this November if a new ballot initiative attains enough signatures in California.
Called the “California Clean Environment” initiative, the petitioners seek to eliminate vaccine requirements for daycares and schools, ban more than 300 chemicals including fire retardants ban smart meters due to spurious concerns about “radiation” (which have been proven to be unfounded by the World Health Organization), prohibit fluoride and chlorine treatment for water, and ban GMOs.
Essentially, it would turn California into a conspiracy theorist’s utopia. Any violation of these non-evidence based measures would result in non-trivial prison sentences and fines.
The majority of the reasons for these draconic regulations stems from a fear of unspecified chemical agents that could potentially lead to Parkinson’s, autism, and a whole slew of other conditions, stating ““nothing may be introduced into people, commerce, or the environment if it causes or increases the probability of one or more of the following in people, mammals, birds, bees, other beneficial insects, or amphibians.” before listing many diseases and conditions that anti-vaccine activists claim to want to prevent.
California is already home to many of the strictest environmental regulations in the United States, and made headlines in anti-vax circles when they began to aggressively scrutinize personal belief exemptions for vaccines in public schools which many believe are linked to the 2015 Disneyland outbreak of measles, the first time the disease had spread in the United States on such a scale in decades.
The petitioners have until August 8th to collect enough signatures to appear on the November midterm election ballot.