Lawn pesticides are endangering our kids
How many parents realize that the herbicides and pesticides used in lawn
and garden care are literally killing their children?
A recent publication by the Environmental Health Committee (EHC) of the
Ontario College of Family Physicians warns of such dangers to human health.
The EHC has searched the medical and scientific literature and found that
there is an increased risk of leukemia, brain cancer and soft tissue
sarcomas in children who have been exposed to herbicides and pesticides.
Leukemia, brain cancer and sarcoma often prove to be deadly diseases.
Adults do not escape the health effects of exposure to pesticides. However,
studies show that adults appear to be less sensitive and more resistant to
the dangers of pesticides than are infants and children.
In the U.S., the National Research Council and Academy of Science was
commissioned to study pesticides in the diets of infants and children.
It came to the following conclusions:
The amounts and variety of pesticides now used are far greater than in any
other time in history.
Infants and children are more likely than adults to suffer the toxic
effects of exposure to pesticides as a result of different metabolic rates,
a greater absorptive area, diets more concentrated in certain foods high in
pesticide residues and a relatively immature immune system.
Statutory government-controlled guidelines for the safety of the use of
pesticides often use laboratory and scientific data which do not
necessarily represent the dangers to human health.
Current regulatory systems only look at the average exposure of the entire
population. As a consequence, variations in exposure to pesticides related
to age, geographic location and ethnic behavioural differences are not
addressed.
So, why do many families continue to make their lawns and gardens a health
hazard to their children, themselves, their pets and wildlife?
Why do municipalities and school boards continue to spray public grounds
and playing fields where little children play and frolic? How would an
earthling explain the use of such agents to an extraterrestrial intelligent
being? The earthling would have to admit that he sprayed to control weeds.
When asked by the extraterrestrial to define a weed, the earthling would
have to reply that a weed is a plant that has not made the accepted list.
When asked if killing such weeds was worth causing fatal diseases in his
children, I invite you to fashion your own reply.
Many individuals and some wise and concerned municipalities such as Cote
St. Luc, Quebec, have ceased to use such agents in order to protect the
health of their families, their pets and the wildlife for whom their yards
is also home.
It is increasingly apparent that, for communities to obtain a greater level
of health and well-being, political leadership of the type offered in Cote
St. Luc is mandatory.
Institutions, organizations and governments have been progressive and
assertive in protecting individuals from the risks of second-hand smoke.
Now is the time to make our private and public lands a safer place for all
by banning the unnecessary urban use of pesticides. We should always
remember the words of Chief Seattle, ``Whatever we do unto the web of life,
we do unto ourselves.''
Jim Hollingworth, M.D., is a family physician in Goderich and a founding
member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
KEYWORDS: Editorial
The Toronto Star