Consumers urged to take pledge to stop using lawn chemicals

The world is rapidly changing and with it are perspectives on the use of toxic lawn chemicals and the hazards they pose to our children, families, neighbors, wildlife and drinking water sources.

Public concern over the potential hazards associated with chemical lawn care products and services has been on a steady rise. And with good reason. Over 100 million pounds of pesticides are used by homeowners in homes and gardens each year, even more when commercial companies are added in. Suburban lawns and gardens are known to receive far heavier pesticide applications per acre than most other land areas in the U.S., including agricultural areas.

Studies show that these hazardous lawn chemicals are drifting and being tracked-in to our homes where they contaminate indoor air and surfaces, exposing children at levels ten times higher than preapplication levels.
“Children are particularly vulnerable to exposure from lawn chemicals,” says Dr. Routt Reigart, pediatrician at the Medical University of South Carolina. “Many of the chemicals typically used on lawns present acute and chronic risks to children’s health.”

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not evaluate low level exposures like the ones people receive from these lawn products and it doesn’t evaluate the actual product mixtures found on store shelves,” says Jay Feldman executive director at Beyond Pesticides.

Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides, 13 are probable or possible carcinogens, 14 are linked with birth defects, 18 with reproductive effects, 20 with liver or kidney damage, 18 with neurotoxicity, and 28 are sensitizers and/or irritants. Of those same 30 lawn pesticides, 17 are detected in groundwater, 23 have the ability to leach into drinking water sources, 24 are toxic to fish and other aquatic organisms vital to our ecosystem, 11 are toxic to bees, and 16 are toxic to birds. With numbers like this, the only logical questions are: is this really necessary, and what can we do to stop or prevent this kind of contamination?

“Twenty-eight of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides are toxic to birds, aquatic organisms like fish or important beneficial insects such as bumble bees, which are critical pollinators of plants and flowers,” says Carolin e Kennedy, Director of Conservation Initiatives for Defenders of Wildlife. “Keeping a yard with non-toxic alternatives is far easier than the lawn pesticide companies would have you believe, and it’s the best way we can go easy on neighborhood wildlife.”

Members of the National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns are working to halt senseless exposure to lawn pesticides and to educate the public, landscapers, and policy makers on the use of non-toxic and least-toxic lawn care practices and products. Change begins and ends at local level. The public plays an extremely important role in lawn pesticide reform – not only in the way it perceives the use of toxic pesticides in homes and communities but also in the way it demands safe alternatives from retailers, organic services from lawn care providers, and better protection from pesticide exposure from local policy makers.

Consider joining the National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns and help educate your neighbors, your community – including landscapers and your policy makers about the unacceptable hazards of lawn chemicals. You can sign up at www.beyondpesticides.org/pesticidefreelawns/
declaration/index.htm.