Parent pressure against pesticides - Groups urge action at daycares, schools

Click Here to Add Comment

Previous

Current Articles

Next

---

Subject:  Parent pressure against pesticides - Groups urge action at daycares, schools
 Date:     Mon, 15 Apr 2002 10:12:13 -0400
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: Sunday, April 07, 2002 from the Montreal Gazette entitled: Parent pressure against pesticides - Groups urge action at daycares, schools by MICHELLE LALONDE.

Anti-pesticide groups are urging parents to ask their daycares and schools to stop using pesticides this spring, rather than wait for the Quebec government to act on a report that urges a three-year phase-out of the chemicals.

"People who don't use pesticides at home to protect their children should be demanding that these chemicals not be used in other places their children go, because we all share the same air," said Edith Smeesters, president of the Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides. "It's a question of defending your rights to have clean air."

The federal government recently introduced legislation calling for its regulatory agency to take a new look at chemicals that were first studied and approved for sale up to 30 years ago.

Pesticide groups are not satisfied with that legislation, saying Ottawa should be banning the use of pesticides for cosmetic reasons, such as ridding lawns of dandelions.

Though Quebec groups support a provincial report submitted to the environment minister recently that calls for a pesticide phase-out over three years, they're urging individuals and institutions to check their use as quickly as possible.

Preparing to Restrict

Smeesters said at least 47 municipalities in the province are prepared to go ahead with bylaws restricting pesticide use. Over the last few years, her group and its affiliates have trained city parks departments on how to use safer alternatives to control weeds and insects.

The two-day seminars with organic gardening experts are funded by Quebec government subsidies.

"We explain that on about 95 per cent of public property, it is not necessary to have perfect lawns," she said. And on the few places where this is desirable, such as on the lawns of city halls, or on sports fields, it is possible to use organic products or to modify soil conditions to reduce weeds.

Some nurseries and garden-supply stores are moving away from chemical products and embracing organic gardening without waiting for legislation.

Loblaws announced last month that as of 2003, it will no longer carry chemical weed and insect killers in its 440 garden centres across the country.

André Jasmin of Pépinière Jasmin in St. Laurent said his business has been phasing out chemical pesticides and herbicides.

"Over the past five years we have been selling more and more natural pest-control products because our customers are looking for that," he said.

Natural alternatives, such as worms called nematodes to kill white grubs and ladybugs to kill aphids, are selling well at his store. He worries about selling chemical pesticides, he said, because many of his customers use them improperly, doubling the recommended dose or spraying an entire lawn instead of spot-treating problem areas.

"We know it's dangerous," he said.

A spokesman for the city of Montreal said former suburbs probably will continue their usual practices this spring, but city hall plans to have a bylaw enacted by next spring.

- Michelle Lalonde's E-mail address is mlalonde@thegazette.southam.ca.

© Copyright  2002 Montreal Gazette

http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=475026A8-9462-4A7F-8D51-9C88D38B5609

Well Mr. Helliker, do we who live in "the land of the free",  have the right to have clean air?

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten

---

If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, please email us at list@safe2use.com.

TOP