City committee developing ban bylaw

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Subject:    City committee developing ban bylaw
     Date:  4/25/2004
    From:     Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com) (www.thebestcontrol.com)

To:     Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
          Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation 

Sat 24 Apr 2004 - The Hamilton Spectator
City committee developing ban bylaw By Carmela Fragomeni

A Hamilton council committee formed to ban pesticides is getting off the ground just as a new Ontario College of Family Physicians report links pesticides to serious illnesses like cancer.
The pesticides sub-committee met for the first time this week, after a series of setbacks that put pesticide issues on the backburner for the public health department, while it focused on SARS, E. coli and West Nile Virus issues.
Christine Brown, spokesperson for Hamilton's Coalition on Pesticide Use, is glad to see the city is taking a new approach by developing a bylaw banning residents from using pesticides on their lawns to make them look good. The earlier approach was aimed at teaching alternatives and getting people to self-regulate on pesticide use, she said.
However, Councillor Brian McHattie, who chairs the sub-committee, said "We do plan on consulting far and wide before getting too far along on this."
The medical report urges doctors ask patients about a history of pesticide exposure when they see non-specific symptoms such as fatigue, dizziness, rashes, weaknesses and anxiety.
Toxicologist and University of Guelph professor Keith Solo-mon said the physicians' report, like so many other studies, shows a link between pesticides and illnesses, but this doesn't prove they caused the illness.
"You can't go to someone who is ill and measure their exposure 20 years ago."
Solomon says it's only common sense the medical report recommends people reduce exposure with proper use and directions. But "in the real world, children are not exposed as often, or at the levels we think."
A Toronto health department report said one experimental study showed children had a higher risk of exposure through getting the pesticide on their hands and transferring it to their mouths. Exposure for everyone depends on many factors, such as the intensity, frequency and duration of contact with the body and whether protective clothing and gloves are used. Routes of exposure include ingestion, inhalation and absorption through the skin.
Common sources of pesticide exposure are sport fish, outdoor sprays used on lawns, gardens, golf courses and roadsides, drinking water contaminated by agricultural or industrial pesticide runoff, and pesticide residues on food. The most vulnerable are children under five, pregnant and nursing women, and the elderly.
Environmentalists and municipalities urge people to use natural alternatives. Toronto and about 65 Ontario municipalities have banned pesticide use for cosmetic use on private property, with allowances for special circumstances.
Hamilton, Burlington and Oakville also do not use pesticides in their parks and public lands, with a few exceptions.

cfragomeni@thespec.com 905-526-3392

 

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