The War On Lawn Drugs
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War On Lawn Drugs
Date:
Wed, 17 Jul 2002 15:39:37 -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
May 4, 2002, The Saint John Telegraph Journal - Cover Story NB Reader Magazine by Nina Chiarelli entitled: The War On Lawn Drugs
Shediac expects to be the first municipality in N.B. to ban lawn pesticides; but other towns are talking about it. According to Quispamsis resident Patty Donovan, it's that time of year again.
For the past seven years, Ms. Donovan has been fighting what she calls a losing battle against the cosmetic use of pesticides in her community. Every spring, she says the issue gets raised again, as residents and town officials prepare to make their gardens and lawns fit for enjoyment.
"There's just a sense of apathy in our region," Ms. Donovan says, explaining that many residents feel having a well-maintained lawn is more important than the health concerns of the general public. "The people of New Brunswick need to reassess where they put their values.
Is it on the life and health of a child, or on the importance of having a green lawn?"
For Ms. Donovan, the issue is especially important because her
14-year-old son suffers from environmental illness. When he was diagnosed seven years ago in Grade 2, as being sensitive to chemicals, Ms. Donovan said she became aware of just how harmful pesticides and herbicides can be, and vowed to fight for a municipal ban.
"I think pesticides are completely and utterly not necessary," she says, of using these products for beautifying homeowner lawns. "First and foremost, the impact on people's health is troubling, and secondly we're all (in Quispamsis) on wells, so the impact on ground water is very important."
Conservation Council of New Brunswick policy director, David Coon, says his organization also feels pesticides and herbicides are dangerous and should be banned.
"We've been campaigning for some time to see a ban placed on cosmetic pesticides," he says. "The big issues with cosmetic pesticides is the direct and indirect exposure experienced by children."
According to Mr. Coon, cosmetic pesticides would be primarily the herbicide that is used to kill dandelions, and the insecticides used to kill earwigs, ants or aphids.
"The growing health concerns around the exposure by children from low-level pesticides range from childhood cancer to developmental impacts that would interfere with the healthy development of motor skills and cognitive development," Mr. Coon says.
He urges politicians to enact either provincial legislation or municipal bylaws that would protect the health of residents of New Brunswick.
"It is fundamentally a public health issue," Mr. Coon says. "It requires political leadership to protect the public health and take the necessary action to remove these poisons from the shelf and from use, so that we can protect those who are most vulnerable."
On April 16 of this year, Quispamsis town council decided it could not enforce a bylaw on the cosmetic use of pesticides, so it decided to abandon an earlier proposal for a complete municipal ban.
"We thought that maybe a total ban was not workable," says Quispamsis Deputy Mayor Murray Driscoll.
Instead, Quispamsis has successfully passed a position paper on the issue, which supports federal and provincial initiatives to control pesticide usage. "Our plan is to lobby governments and proceed with regulation initiatives, and keep the town informed. We, as a town, want a public awareness campaign that . . . distributes information that places an emphasis on environmentally friendly alternatives for healthy turf," he continues.
Mr. Driscoll said banning pesticides is really under provincial or federal jurisdiction and banning such usage would result in people using pesticide products regardless of the repercussions.
"I believe there are many people who are not willing to abide by a ban. They would spray at nighttime," Mr. Driscoll speculates. "I could go out and spray my property right now, and no one would ever know."
Ironically, Quispamsis has not used pesticides or insecticides on any municipal property for two years.
Ms. Donovan says Mr. Driscoll and the Town of Quispamsis are not giving residents any credit. "These are educated people. I think the point of view that people would clandestinely come out at night and spray, pitting neighbour against neighbour, is ridiculous," Ms.
Donovan says. "If their municipal government is going to say, 'No, you can't use pesticides,' then people are not going to use them."
Ms. Donovan adds that larger cities such as Hudson, Que., and Halifax have already been successful at banning pesticides and herbicides because residents there care enough to fight for public health, and city officials are not afraid to step on residents' toes.
At the moment there are more than 37 municipalities in Ontario considering the banning of cosmetic pesticides. Municipalities such as London, Kingston, Ottawa, Caledon and Toronto have been told by their residents that, at the very least, public consultation on the matter is warranted.
"Toronto has the most resources and is the biggest centre, so we sort of deal with the whole gamut of issues, and it tends to be the case that other municipalities watch what we do," says Karen Clark, supervisor of environmental health assessment and policy for Toronto Public Health.
Ms. Clark says that besides a 98-per-cent reduction of pesticide use by the city since 1998, Toronto is also undergoing a public consultation process to determine how the public feels about a bylaw, and any potential ramifications a bylaw would have.
Ms. Clark is encouraged by the recent tabling of a federal Pest Control Products Act that would strengthen health and environmental protection for Canadians, as well as make the registration system for pesticide products used in Canada more transparent.
"We asked (federal Health Minister Anne McLellan) what the impact of this legislation would be on municipal initiatives, and she gave the right answer," Ms. Clark says. "The federal act screens new products coming into Canada, and requires them to be safely stored and properly labeled, but the feds have no jurisdiction at the level of residential use of pesticides. The bill itself does not impact municipal concerns and Anne McLellan said herself that if municipalities are considering pursuing bylaws they can go right ahead."
This sentiment was echoed by Chris Krepski, spokesman for the Pest Management and Regulation Agency, the agency that administers the federal Pest Control Products Act for Health Canada.
"Our mandate is to ensure that pest control products that are sold in Canada are safe, meaning that everything sold in Canada has to be registered through us," Mr. Krepski says, adding that "if a municipality or a province wants to ban a pesticide for cosmetic use it's under their jurisdiction to decide that.
"Our role is to ensure the safety of the products that are available on the market. The provinces can then go and have additional regulations for pesticides in their own domain, and they can put in place more stringent restrictions on the use of pesticides. That's all within their power," he says.
Mr. Coon is zeroing in on precisely this. The conservation council has started redirecting its attention from municipalities to the province.
"Our approach has been instead of having to wait for municipalities to take the steps, to urge the provincial ministers to use provincial legislation to do it in one full sweep," Mr. Coon explains.
However, no Atlantic province has done that yet.
"As long as I've been minister, the question always comes up this time of year," says New Brunswick Environment Minister Kim Jardine.
"What we've told municipalities is that the Municipalities Act is silent when it comes to a ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides. They certainly have the ability to make bylaws and they do that on their own. But there's nothing in the act that speaks directly about pesticide use."
Mr. Coon says this is because pesticide use is not high on the priority list of Premier Bernard Lord's government.
"There isn't a dramatic focus on the public health in New Brunswick in general," Mr. Coon says. "Action to ban cosmetic pesticide use would be a tangible and very meaningful step for this government."
Still, Ms. Jardine, who sits on a working council with three organizations of municipalities, says that despite a lack of provincial legislation, she is discussing pesticide concerns with municipalities as they are raised.
"We're going to look at it from the department's perspective, in that, how can we work with the municipalities and move forward on this issue? A lot of them are asking basic questions and we should all be doing the same thing," she says.
Only one municipality in New Brunswick has been successful at getting its residents to seriously consider banning cosmetic pesticides and herbicides.
Shediac town manager Marco Pitre says he expects the municipality to pass a bylaw by the end of this year that would reduce the use of pesticides and herbicides on private, municipal and commercial property.
The proposed bylaw has already had its second reading for public consultation, and Mr. Pitre says the third reading, expected by the end of May, will finish up the process of instituting the bylaw within the town.
"We're the first region now, in New Brunswick to put this together," Mr. Pitre says, proudly.
"Here is Shediac, the town is mostly tourism based, so it was the ideal little town to do it in, because we don't have the agricultural basis or forestry basis, that do require pesticide use very often. So for us, it was maybe an easier task to push this ahead because we didn't have all these other parties to take into account," he explains.
Although Mr. Pitre says he believes Shediac does not have the authority of the province to push ahead with the bylaw, he was told by Minister Jardine that any municipality can pass any bylaw that protects the public good.
According to the proposed bylaw, no residential property within the town will be allowed to receive pesticide treatment as soon as it is passed. All municipal properties, which haven't had pesticide treatment since 2000, will have to comply by 2003, and golf course owners were given five years to comply.
"Its been very positive here," Mr. Pitre says, adding he hopes Shediac's work on the issue will raise awareness in other parts of New Brunswick, and provide a basis for any potential bylaws in other cities.
In Sackville, community development secretary, Rebekah Cant said the town has been investigating pesticides for more than a year.
"We decided that we really needed to get information out to the community, about pesticides, about alternatives to pesticides," she says, explaining a committee was formed at the outset to determine exactly how the town wanted to deal with the issue of pesticides.
Comprised of farmers, concerned residents, and a physician, Ms. Cant says the town has been watching other municipalities carefully and deciding what works best for them. "There really is an interest in the community," she says.
Moncton supervisor of parks and grounds, Jim Moore, says residents in the Greater Moncton Area are also very interested in what kind of pesticides are getting used in their area.
"One of the key components in this whole issue is letting people know what they can do, and what they should do," he says.
There is a review process currently underway, and Moncton has been in contact with both federal and provincial governments, as well as other municipalities such as Halifax, that already have successful bans in place.
Besides not using any broad spectrum herbicide on municipal parks lawns since 1998, Mr. Moore says the city implemented an internal integrated pest management policy in 1985 to deal with pests and infestations in a healthful way.
The city does use pesticidal soaps, and herbicide manufactured from concentrated coconut oil, though. "A lot of Moncton residents are not aware of how we are managing our green spaces, and the processes we have. Maybe in our defence it wasn't much of an issue until a couple of years ago, but we nonetheless have implemented these policies," he says.
In Saint John, however, public consultations have not yet taken place.
"Our environment committee is looking into it," Mayor Shirley McAlary says, adding the committee has not yet reported back to council.
Several years ago, the parks department staff told council they were going to cut back as much as possible on pesticides. "I don't mean completely eliminate it, but we use a lot less now than what we did years ago," she says.
However, Ms. McAlary says she thinks public consultation for an issue this big would definitely be necessary. "We could never ban pesticides in the city without having public input. It affects many, many people and many different companies, so we would certainly have to have a public hearing process on it," she says, adding the city has done no real research on the issue as of yet. "We're not there yet."
Back in Quispamsis, Ms. Donovan says she stay hopeful that Saint John will soon get into the herbicide discussion, so smaller local areas such as her town can use workable findings and examples to draw up similar bylaws that will get everyone in the province on board.
"I think what we really need to do, is first of all, stop using pesticides," she says. "The more consumers who say this is not acceptable, I want an alternative - companies will change to suit the need of the consumer. If these lawn spraying companies cannot move their product, they're going to find a way to earn consumers' money.
But we certainly don't need to let our lawns get addicted to drugs."
http://www.web.net/nben/envnews/media/02/may/patty.htm
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