''Pesticides are toast"

 

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Subject:   ''Pesticides are toast"
     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 

Sunday, April 25, 2004 - The Ottawa Citizen ''Pesticides are toast"....... after report links weed-killers to cancer, politicians suggest Daniel Tencer and Chris Cobb

City councillors pushing for a ban on garden pesticides say an  influential new report linking the commonly-used poisons to human  cancer is evidence enough that Ottawa should prohibit their use by  next spring.

"The writing is on the wall," Councillor Alex Cullen told the Citizen  yesterday, "and this report shows that the writing can't be ignored."

Mr. Cullen will urge fellow councillors to pass a new bylaw before  the end of the year that would prohibit cosmetic pesticide use by the  spring 2005 gardening season.

The new report, from the Ontario College of Family Physicians, offers  damning evidence that pesticides commonly used to kill weeds and  suburban garden pests are linked to cancer.

The college's report reveals "positive associations" between  pesticide exposure and brain cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer  and pancreatic cancer.

"It is clear from the review that an association exists between  pesticide exposure and leukemia," says the report. "The implication  of pesticides in the development of leukemia warrants further  investigation and also political action."

In 2002, council rejected a ban on pesticide use, opting instead for  a plan that included a pesticide ban on city-owned lawns and a  community education program aimed at getting a 70-per-cent voluntary  reduction in use of the chemicals. That target seems unlikely to be  met.

"This report is telling us not to wait for 2005," said Mr. Cullen.  "Now that the evidence is much clearer, city council should be  accelerating the process."

Councillor Clive Doucet said the report confirms what individual  doctors have already told the city and signals the end of cosmetic  pesticide use in Ottawa.

"Whether we ban them this year or next," he said, "pesticides are toast.

"They are on the same curve as smoking was. When we first started on  smoking, everyone said we were intrusive and

authoritarian. Now entire provinces and countries are banning it.

"With pesticides, it just depends where we want to be on the curve:  Do we want to lead or do we want to follow?"

Mr. Cullen and Mr. Doucet predict there will be enough support on  council to get the new bylaw passed.

"I'm not saying it's unanimous," said Mr Cullen, "because it isn't. A  lot of my colleagues understood there were health issues, but were  waiting for something more definitive. This report will move us  along. We can't afford to use another year of people being exposed to  these chemicals."

The city's anti-pesticide education program, and its efforts to get  residents to voluntarily change to non-chemical alternatives, seem to  have fallen on barren ground.

"The city spent $400,000 last year teaching people about pesticide  use," said Councillor Jan Harder. "And cosmetic pesticide use went up  last year."

Some councillor have criticized the city's pesticide-free policy,  saying the city was not doing enough maintenance to keep its own  property in good shape without the use of pesticides.

"You look at Festival Plaza and the other side of City Hall on Lisgar  Street, and both are in pretty bad shape," Councillor Gord Hunter  told The Citizen last fall. He added that the weed growth on city  lawns "is a bit embarrassing."

A number of Ontario cities have gone pesticide-free in recent years,  after a 2001 Supreme Court ruling upheld a pesticide ban in Hudson,  Que.

More than 50 municipalities across Canada have banned cosmetic  pesticide use but the pesticide industry continues to challenge the  legality of the bans.

The City of Ottawa has compiled a list of lawn care providers who  offer weed-free lawns without the use of pesticides.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2004

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