The ice and snow are still on the ground, and
the big snowplow piles will be for some time to
come, but bits of grass are peeking up around the
edges of yards. And what does this portend?
Spring! Well yes, and lawn care, with pesticide
trucks coming down the streets to apply their
toxic material to the grass, sidewalks and streets
of our neighborhoods.
Spring pesticide applications seem like such a
mundane and common occurrence in Wellesley. Are
pesticides really dangerous? The answer is a
resounding yes. Lawn care chemicals are
much more than just synthetic fertilizers
(problematic enough in themselves). They include
toxic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides that
can make you sick. These are broad-spectrum
biocides, which simply means they are poisonous to
many kinds of life. That includes you and your
family (and children are particularly at risk),
your neighbors, your pets and wildlife. The
Environmental Protection Agency has stated that "
no pesticide can be considered safe, " and that
EPA registration on a label for a pesticide
product does not assure safety. Federal law
prohibits manufacturers from labeling any
pesticide " safe when used as directed. "
What are you putting on your lawn? I urge you
to find out because not knowing is downright
dangerous. We all need to make an informed choice
before deciding how to treat our lawns.
We all need to know that the National Cancer
Institute has indicated that children are as much
as six times more likely to get childhood leukemia
when pesticides are used in the home or garden. We
need to know that 95 percent of the pesticides
used on residential lawns are considered probable
or possible carcinogens by the EPA. We need to
know that 2,4-D (found in over 1,500 lawn care
products) was a component of Agent Orange. We need
to know that organophosphates are designed to act
as nerve toxins. We need to know that the EPA
banned the use of Diazinon on golf courses and sod
farms after massive bird kills were linked to
application. It remained available to the home
gardener and continued to kill countless thousands
of birds until this year, when the EPA decided to
phase it out of home use.
On the other hand, there are other studies
which show some of these same pesticides to be
unlikely carcinogens, to have relatively low
toxicity, and to degrade within a few weeks in the
environment. In the face of such conflicting
evidence, it is important to " stress how limited
scientific knowledge is and how difficult it is to
determine with certainty which chemicals are
harmful and which are not " as quoted of Joel
Tickner of the Lowell Center for Sustainable
Production in last week’s Townsman. This is
especially true of the mixtures of chemicals to
which are bodies are continually exposed in modern
life. Virtually no studies have been done on the
combined effects of toxic chemicals on human
health. The Wellesley Cancer Prevention Project
supports the Precautionary Principle, which
emphasizes precaution in the face of scientific
uncertainty. The Precautionary Principle as it
applies to pesticides suggests the use of
non-toxic methods and materials for lawn care.
But you want a green lawn? Well, that’s OK,
because the good news is that none of these
chemicals are necessary. Our grandparents and
great-grandparents had lawns too, and they were
green, long before the advent of the billion
dollar agri-chemical industry. And there are many
alternatives to the chemical money-go-round
approach to lawn care. An ecological approach to a
healthy lawn seems to me to be the very essence of
Yankee common sense: safe, practical and
effective.
You want to learn more? Great, because the
Wellesley Pesticide Awareness Campaign is here to
help you. We have a new informational brochure
promoting lawns without pesticides, books to
recommend, Web sites to visit, lawn-care tips,
organic landscaper lists, sources for discount
organic material, and future programs on organic
landscaping. To get started, visit www.ci.wellesley.ma.us/nrc/pesticide,
pick up a free brochure from the Library, Town
Hall, Bread and Circus, Strata, or the Needham
Garden Center, e-mail nrc@ci.wellesley.ma.us,
or call the Natural Resources Commission at
431-1019 x294.
There is so much to be gained from learning
about alternatives to pesticides, and so much to
lose if we don’t. Here is an opportunity for you
to begin right here and right now. Spring is
almost in the air. Pesticides needn’t be.
Sarah Little is Wellesley’s Pesticide
Awareness Coordinator. This column was submitted
on behalf of the Wellesley Pesticide Awareness
Campaign and the Wellesley Cancer Prevention
Project.
