Thursday October 27, 2005
Thursday October 27, 2005
A pesticide bylaw is a healthy idea
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(Oct 27, 2005)
I want to strongly encourage Waterloo regional council on Nov. 23 to pass a bylaw that will restrict the use of pesticides on all lawns, sports fields, commercial properties and golf courses in the region. The prohibited products should include both granular and liquid versions of fertilizer-pesticide combinations (e.g.: weed and feed), herbicides, insecticides and fungicides.
The public's last two opportunities to comment in person are at scheduled forums today and Nov. 2. Written comments will be accepted by the regional clerk until Nov. 2.
GROUP (Get Rid of Urban Pesticides) has been advocating for a region-wide pesticide bylaw since the new Municipal Act was passed in 2001. Our efforts have continued the work of the Westmount Environment Group, the Pesticide Action Groups of Waterloo, Cambridge and Kitchener and the Victoria Park Green Team that advocated for bylaws at a municipal level. Their efforts resulted in motivating the city of Waterloo to become the gold standard for pesticide-free turf maintenance on municipal property using the Plant Health Care Program, Kitchener adopting a more restrictive pesticide use policy and stopping pesticide use in Victoria Park.
GROUP is advocating for a strong, region-wide pesticide bylaw for two reasons:
First, pesticides are labelled toxic products (read the labels, see the lawn signs) that threaten our health and contaminate our environment. We are especially concerned about our precious groundwater and our already toxic, polluted air.
Secondly, pesticides are unnecessary when there are safe, preventative alternatives like mowing high, leaving your grass clippings, overseeding, topdressing, upgrading to a more diverse natural lawn that includes fescues, perennial rye grasses and clover or replacing more of your lawn with drought and pest-resistant native plants.
According to regional surveys, public support for a bylaw has increased from 49 per cent in 2003 to 81 per cent this year. With strong public support like this, it is puzzling to hear some naysayers on regional council cite the myths the lawnspray industry have perpetuated:
Myth: Bylaws are unenforceable because pesticides can still be purchased in stores.
Reality: The provincial government regulates pesticide sales. Other provinces, such as Quebec, have already passed legislation to restrict the sales of pesticides but effective municipal bylaws were all passed before that happened.
Myth: There isn't definitive scientific proof of harmfulness as there is with smoking.
Reality: The body of evidence supports the conclusion that pesticides are harmful.
Myth: Hundreds of scientists who work for Health Canada have approved these products.
Reality: Canada does not do its own testing but relies on the Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. for at least 80 per cent of its data, much of that supplied by the chemical industry itself.
Myth: It will kill the lawn-care industry.
Reality: All the promotional material I receive from lawnspray companies offer pesticide-free programs that will replace their pesticide programs.
Myth: Farmers don't want a bylaw.
Reality: Agriculture is exempt from the proposed bylaw.
Myth: Pesticides are already well-regulated by the upper two tiers of government and we have the most rigorous regulatory system in the world
Reality: The federal environment commissioner (a non-partisan watchdog) has severely criticized the Pest Management Regulatory Agency at least three times for their mismanagement of pesticides in Canada.
Myth: Pesticides used on lawns and gardens are less than 10 per cent of all pesticides used.
Reality: In 1993, the only time Ontario has collected data on the amount of active ingredients of pesticides used on other than agricultural crops, 1,302,086 kilograms were used by Environment Ministry licensed pesticide applicators on lawns, parks, golf courses, cemeteries, roadsides and schools. Compare that to the 6,246,440 kg from the same year that were used on field crops, fruits and vegetables and it looks like the number is closer to 17 per cent. In 1993, licensed pesticide applicators were proved to be the second largest pesticide users in Ontario after corn growers.
So what do we need? Although the bylaw must be written in "legalese," Get Rid of Urban Pesticides believes the following elements should be included to make the bylaw workable, enforceable and as an effective tool to educate the public about replacing pesticide use with non-toxic practices.
It must be designed to protect people from unwanted exposure. Lawn signs and advance notice about spraying are not enough. Unless pesticides are prohibited and replaced by non-toxic alternatives, the only way to avoid exposure is to hide in our homes with our windows closed from March to November.
Pesticides should only be allowed for agriculture and to address a health concern where the use of pesticides is less harmful than the health concern (e.g.: public swimming pools, municipal water treatment).
A pesticide bylaw should be enforced in the same manner as the rest of our hundreds of municipal bylaws. The method used to enforce the watering restriction bylaw would appear to be a successful model.
Golf courses must employ a documented plan designed to eliminate pesticide use within a prescribed time period.
The pesticide bylaw must apply to all properties alike -- municipal, private, residential and commercial.
A transitional permit system for one year to provide the opportunity for one-on-one education about pesticide alternatives. With a fee for use, a permit is also a method of cost-recovery.
A series of escalating fines, large enough to act as a deterrent and not be absorbed as just "the cost of doing business."
The fearmongering by the lawn-spray industry through lawsuits and untruths should not determine good public policy.
The region's website states that pesticides pose health and environmental concerns.
With the support of the Ontario College of Family Physicians, over 85 local family physicians and the Kitchner-Waterloo Academy of Medicine, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, both the Canadian and the Ontario Public Health Associations, the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada, the Association of Early Childhood Educators, Ontario, the David Suzuki Foundation and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, political inertia is inexcusable.
Susan Koswan of Kitchener is the founder of GROUP (Get Rid of Urban Pesticides) and main organizer of seven Dandelion Festivals
