Health Canada to ban
pesticide
Doctors welcome voluntary
recall by maker of diazinon
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Tonda MacCharles
OTTAWA BUREAU
Health Canada is moving to ban diazinon, a common house
and garden pesticide, even faster than the United States over potential health
risks to children.
``There will be a voluntary recall (by the company) and
we expect to have a quicker, more stringent regime than in the U.S.,`` said
Catherine Lappe, a spokesperson for Health Minister Allan Rock.
For a half-century, it's been used indoors as an ant and
roach killer and outdoors to kill garden and lawn pests, including grubs.
A similar agreement was reached this week in the United
States with the chemical's manufacturer to phase out the product over four
years.
The recall comes on the eve of a high court challenge by
two Canadian lawn companies of a Quebec municipality's right to ban such
pesticides.
Diazinon, a common ingredient in many indoor and outdoor
insect control sprays, is an organophosphate. Such chemicals attack the
nervous system. It is believed to be especially toxic to children, even at low
doses.
It is sold in Canada under these brand names: Green Leaf
Diazinon Lawn and Garden Spray, Green Cross Garden and Lawn Insecticide, and
White Rose Guardian Plant and Garden Insecticide. It also occurs as an active
ingredient in other products, and is listed on labels.
Mark Richard, a spokesperson for Health Canada's
pesticide management regulatory agency, said the public is not exposed to
harmful levels of the chemical through normal use but levels of safe exposure
are not stringent enough under new guidelines devised by the U.S. and adopted
by Canada in 1996.
The voluntary recall will not affect products geared to
agricultural use.
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`What is being removed here are
the uses that are likely to lead to the highest exposures to children, which
are the ones around the home, the ones for indoor and outdoor lawn and
garden use.' Mark Richard Health Canada spokesperson
``What is being removed here are the uses that are likely
to lead to the highest exposures to children, which are the ones around the
home, the ones for indoor and outdoor lawn and garden use,'' Richard said.
``It's a really important improvement for children's
health and other people's health,'' said Theresa McClenaghan, of the Canadian
Environmental Law Association. ``But we'd like to see an even more organized,
systematic approach to re-evaluating all chemicals under Canada's law.''
The decision comes as the small Quebec town of Hudson,
backed by 11 environmental groups, heads to the Supreme Court of Canada today
to defend a bylaw passed nine years ago to ban cosmetic pesticide use on
public and private properties.
Espaces Verts (then Chemlawn) and Spray-Tech, two large
lawn maintenance companies, are challenging the town's power to enact such a
law, saying the products are legally licensed under federal and provincial
laws.
The companies have twice lost in Quebec's lower courts
which found provincial law allows municipalities to pass laws relating to
local health and general welfare.
About 37 Quebec towns have passed similar bylaws and
several Ontario municipalities restrict pesticides on public property,
McClenaghan told a news conference yesterday.
Toronto moved in 1998 to phase out pesticide use on
public green spaces; one year later, use had declined by 97 per cent.