Are golf courses hazardous to our health?
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CommentSubject: Are golf courses hazardous to our health?
Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2002 17:55:02 -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
Apr. 22, 2002. 01:00 AM
Toronto Star
Fore: Pesticides tee off environmentalists
Judy Steed
Feature Writer
Are golf courses hazardous to our health?
Some people think so. In Ballycroy, on the Oak Ridges Moraine
near Orangeville, a local group is fighting a proposed golf resort.
"There's not enough water in the ground to service the whole complex,
including a banquet hall, hotel and a 27 hole golf course," says Debbe
Crandall, executive director of STORM (Save the Oak Ridges Moraine coalition).
"We're also worried about the huge applications of
pesticides. We talked to a golf pro who had to give up the job because of
exposure to chemicals."
Closer to North Bay, pals of former premier Mike Harris want
to build a golf course, and local cottagers say no, for fear of what the
chemicals would do to the lake.
Dr. Nicole Bruinsma, a physician who successfully fought for
the right of municipalities to ban the use of cosmetic pesticides, also fought
the expansion of a golf course in her community of Chelsea, Que.,
largely because of concerns about water. (Bruinsma died recently of breast
cancer, at the age of 42.)
"We have a bylaw in Chelsea prohibiting the use of
pesticides," says her husband, Scott Findlay, an associate professor of
ecology at the University of Ottawa. "The local golf courses are complying.
It's possible to have an organic golf course. But the water issue remains a
serious one."
As for the pesticides and herbicides used on most golf
courses, "they're designed to kill things - and there's increasing evidence
of impacts on humans," he says.
He applauds Loblaws' decision to stop selling cosmetic
pesticides and shift to organic garden supplies within the next two years.
Janet May, spokesperson for Pesticide Free Ontario, notes
that bentgrass, commonly used on golf courses, is susceptible to a fungus that
is treated with toxic chemicals. "The toxic load on the environment
increases from year to year."
With golf one of the fastest growing sports in North America, and more children playing - thanks to Tiger Wood's popularization of the game - May asks "how many parents are aware of the potential danger their children are being exposed to, on the golf course?"
As for assurances by the golf industry that chemical pesticides are safe because they're approved and regulated by the government, Jerry DeMarco, managing lawyer for the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, offers a different point of view. "The federal government accepts studies by manufacturers that are often outdated, and the only thing it (the government) does is assess risk. It can't guarantee safety."
Pierre Mineau, an environmental toxicologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Hull, says that for at least 10 years, "we've known that diazinon, an insecticide used on golf courses, kills a lot of birds. It's not safe. We participated in hearings and tried to get action taken. The Ontario government looked at it, and its consultants reached the same conclusion we did, but nothing was done."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revised its risk assessment of diazinon in Dec. 2000 and asked users to phase out or eliminate many uses of the product.
The World Wildlife Fund offers a list of 60 pesticides that are registered for use in Canada but banned elsewhere, primarily in Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The fund's Web site also lists 10 reasons "to ditch lawn chemicals and go organic."
Among them: chemical pesticides and fertilizers contaminate groundwater; threaten children, pets and wildlife; and reduce the activity of beneficial organisms.
"When you think how golf originated," says Janet May, "with a bunch of Scots running around a sheep pasture with sticks, chasing rocks, it's a shame how it's evolved."
See it in The Star.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?GXHC_gx_session_id_=68099f48103e4f8e&pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1019427016169&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News -- Well Mr. Helliker, it certainly seems that more and more people want to escape being exposed to your "registered" POISONS. What is not done for love is done for money.
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
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