Ottawa: City Launches Anti-Pesticide Campaign
Subject: City Launches Anti-Pesticide Campaign.......................
Date: Tue, 5 Mar 2002 13:31:51 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might like to read an article dated March 5, 2002, from The Ottawa Citizen entitled: City Launches Anti-Pesticide Campaign by Zev Singer.
Ottawa will be getting an education on pesticides.
City council's Health, Recreation and Social Services Committee voted yesterday to launch an education campaign to alert people to the potential dangers of lawn chemicals and to inform them that pesticide-free alternatives exist.
The city will spend $400,000 on the campaign, although $150,000 of that money is in the provincial funding that has yet to be approved. The city's contribution was earmarked in the budget, which was released last month and is now being reviewed at the committee level.
Last May, the city put a stop to the use of cosmetic pesticides on public land. Councillor Alex Cullen would like to see a similar ban on private property.
He thinks the education campaign, which will include advertising and public forums, will help produce support for such a by-law. "It's an important step," he said yesterday. "We're on a path here."
Two municipalities in Quebec, Hudson and Chelsea, have already put by-laws in place to restrict the sue of pesticides on private property. A similar by-law-law for Ottawa will likely come before Council in the fall. It will be a tougher sell than the education campaign.
Councillor Diane Deans, a member of the committee, said yesterday that although she supports the idea of the campaign, she would have to see firmer evidence of the health risks involved with pesticides, or a greater amount of public support for a ban before she'd vote for it.
"I believe in my heart of hearts that there is a link" between pesticide and health problems, she said.
Yet Ms. Deans said she didn't belive the majority of the public has come around to support a ban on pesticides,and in her opinion it could take more time than the committee estimates before people are convinced. "You've got to have public pinion behind you," she said.
One group that will support a ban is the Raging Grannies, who came to the committee meeting to sing their song, Lawns, Lawns Without Spray, to the tune of Home, Home On the Range.
Yet, Thom Bourne, who owns a licensed lawn care company, is not sold on the ban. He offers alternative pesticide-free options to his clients, but says they don't work as well as pesticides. "If you have all the time in the world, they might work." he says.
A ban would be bad news, Mr, Bourne says, because the city would not be able to stop people from buying the chemicals, which are governed by federal law. As a result, people would use them without proper training and without putting up signs.
The only councillor who did not vote for the education campaign was Shawn Little, who said the amount of money was too small to make a dent in the public consciousness and would be better spend on other city needs. He added that he uses non-pesticide alternatives on his own lawn and suspects that many people are already aware of their options.
The city's pesticide information line is 724-4227.
Source: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Well Mr. Helliker, obviously you will not be alerting California people to the potential dangers of your "registered" lawn chemicals (POISONS) and/or to inform them that any pesticide-free alternatives exist. Maybe "someday" you will allow the use of safe and far more effective (unregistered) pesticide-free alternatives - until then there are no other "legal" choices other than more and more and more of your "registered" POISONS. Thom Bourne should start a lawn "care" company in California or find some other alternatives that actually control pest problems - I know of thousands!
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, Email Us. with "subscribe" in the subject line.