DANGER! Chemicals on Yards!

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Comment by snapdragons daughter on December 17, 2008 at 6:33pm

Hey Everyone! As winter rolls around in the northern hemisphere, our thoughts turn from outside to family holidays, friends and traditions. It is probably the furthest thing from our minds to be thinking about our lawns and spreading things in them.

I just want to plant the seed of consciousness for next year.... go organic! Consider using alternative methods for pest control. Don't wait till it's too late next spring and your roses are full of aphids... the stink bug is all over your lilacs... and something is nipping at the bean stalks... plan today for tomorrow. Educate yourself.

I'm going to be looking up cool websites to share. Please share your finds with others here. Together, we can start to make a difference in the amount of synthetic materials we add to the environment.

Tracy, welcome and hope that we can educate your neighbors and landlady as well about the overuse of pesticides.

Happy Holidays!

Comment by Tracy on December 17, 2008 at 9:05am

I am so happy to have found this group. We have recently moved to a new state in a rental and in our neighborhood, glorious emerald green lawns are coveted. Our neighborhood is pretty high density and all the lawns run together, usually without fences or anything to delineate one yard from another.

Weeds are despised and weed killer is used at the drop of a dime. I have never had a lawn as an adult coming from metropolitan cities like San Francisco, but I am an organic eater and detest chemicals of that nature. So when my neighbor comes over and tells me not to go barefoot in our yard for a day or two because he has just dropped weed killer and fertilizer, alarms go off. I have a six year old and two cats and I don't much like having to worry about this in my own yard, although it doesn't really matter since all of my neighbors use the stuff and we get a lot of rain runoff.

So, I asked my landlady if we could not use any chemicals on the lawn while we live here and she said that we needed to or the neighborhood would complain about weeds. She also asked us to spray pesticide on a bush out front that is being eaten by beetles, but when I went to do this (right after moving in) I saw all of the warnings on the label (you know, like wash hands immediately after using and don't get on your skin...all of that stuff), so I didn't do it. She had a lawn care company come and do that when they came to put down more weed killer and fertilizer.

All this to say - are weeds so bad? Why do people poison their environment to get rid of weeds and have "beautiful" lawns? I won't even go into all of the noise and air pollution from the lawn mowers that go on every week.

My daughter's school's grounds are covered in weeds (I presume they don't use weed killers) and I think it's gorgeous. In spring and summer the dandelions and other flowering weeds are out and everything looks so lush and green.

All of your posts are very informative and I am so glad to get validation here. Thank you for starting this group!

Comment by snapdragons daughter on October 15, 2008 at 9:15am

Thanks again, Jill, for the info. To give a little background, I live in a neighborhood where there are over 90,000 people living in close-proximity housing (5- 6 houses to an acre). Lawn care companies spray pyrethroids, in my opinion, with way too much ease. And herbicides like 2,4-D, atrazine and glosphate are applied to lawns like granny buttering bread (there's a lot of it).

We are the victims of drift and over-spray. I have been fighting this and the lawn care company has threatened me with a SLAPP suit.

I am appalled at how easily consumers let these chemicals be used and how they let their kids and pets play in treated areas.

I am a breast cancer survivor diagnosed at 34, and according to studies, chemicals like chlordane, malathion, and 2,4-D show an increased risk of early on-set breast cancer when young women are exposed.

I can not sit and watch as chemicals get sprayed all over my neighborhood and have my kids exposed to them and not do something.

Solution: Education and change public perception.

So here I am.

Comment by Jill on October 13, 2008 at 8:56pm

Now- here is an interesting tidbit. It comes from the Organic Trade Association.
A study to assess preschool children’s organophosphorus pesticide exposure in the Seattle Metropolitan area made an interesting discovery: the only child whose urine contained no measurable pesticide metabolites lives in a family that buys exclusively organic produce and does not use any pesticides at home. In the study conducted by the University of Washington Department of Environmental Health, urine samples were collected from 96 children during the spring and fall. In the study, 83 children had at least one measurable dialkylphosphate (DAP) metabolite in the spring sampling, while 88 had at least one measurable DAP metabolite in the fall sampling. Only 1 child—the one whose parents bought exclusively organic produce--had no metabolites in both samples. Children living in households with a garden had significantly higher diethyl DAP concentrations than those without a garden, and those where garden pesticide use was reported had significantly higher diethyl and dimethyl DAP levels. In fact, there was an association between reported residential pesticide use and elevated DAP metabolite concentrations.
Source: Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 109, No. 3, March 2001 (pp. 299-303, C. Lu, D.E. Knutson, J. Fisker-Andersen, and R.A. Fenske, "Biological Monitoring Survey of Organophosphorus Pesticide Exposure among Preschool Children in the Seattle Metropolitan area").

Now this isn't lawn care- but the exposure is high if the caregiver/parent uses certain pesticides in their home veggie garden!

Comment by snapdragons daughter on October 13, 2008 at 8:56pm

Jill, thanks so much for this information! WOW! Just the type of feedback I need.

I am working on a project and hope to be able to share more in the next few days. At the moment, I am trying to stay afloat. I just know, as a mom, to do nothing and not try to change public ideals concerning pesticides in our yards would be selling myself short.

Comment by Jill on October 13, 2008 at 9:04am

This spring, two national campaigns highlight the risks of lawn and garden pesticides. With evidence that exposure to lawn care chemicals presents health risks to children and pets and pollutes water and the environment, both campaigns ask that households switch to non-toxic alternatives. The Toxics Action Center in Boston has targeted TruGreen ChemLawn, the nation's largest provider of lawn care services, and urges consumers to "Refuse to Use ChemLawn." The National Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns asks consumers to use non-toxic alternatives, urge retailers to stock non-toxic lawn care products, and pressure public officials for protection from the aesthetic use of pesticides.

A report by the Toxics Action Center reveals ChemLawn's aggressive marketing practices and analyzes the 32 pesticide products the company markets to its household customers. More than half of the products include ingredients identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the World Health Organization as possible carcinogens, one third contain known or suspected endocrine disruptors, and more than a quarter contain reproductive toxins. Over 40% of the chemicals on ChemLawn's list contain ingredients banned in other countries, and all of the products in their arsenal pose threats to water supplies, aquatic organisms, and non-target insects.

Each year, homeowners apply at least 90 million pounds of pesticides to their lawns and gardens. Home use of pesticides has risen 42% between 1998 and 2001 and now represents the only growth sector of the U.S. pesticide market. Pesticides are also applied more intensively for lawn care, with applications rates between 3.2 to 9.8 pounds per acre for lawns, as opposed to agricultural averages of 2.7 pounds per acre.

Importantly, this intensive pesticide use occurs where children-more vulnerable than adults to the effects of pesticide exposure-live and play. The Toxic Action Center report notes that "children's internal organs are still developing and maturing and their enzymatic, metabolic, and immune systems provide less natural protection than those of an adult." Researchers are increasingly identifying several especially vulnerable stages of child development, including fetal and adolescent developmental windows, in which chemical exposures can permanently alter future development.

Pesticides applied on residential and commercial lawns are known to migrate indoors. An EPA study found that residues from outdoor pesticides are tracked in by pets and people's shoes, and can increase the pesticide loads in carpet dust as much as 400-fold. Pesticides have also been found to persist for years within homes, where they do not degrade from exposure to sunlight or rain.

TruGreen ChemLawn sells its services through aggressive telemarketing campaigns, one of which was an arrangement with the US Youth Soccer program to market services to the parents of soccer-playing kids. Under pressure from public health and environmental groups, US Youth Soccer ended its relationship with TruGreen ChemLawn in January of this year. A number of states have penalized the company for its aggressive and misleading marketing.

Both consumer campaigns emphasize the availability of non-toxic lawn care alternatives. Groups like the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) have programs to regularly train and certify professionals in pesticide-free landscaping services. The Coalition for Pesticide-Free Lawns, representing groups across the nation, notes the number of communities that have adopted a precautionary approach, including a Natural Yard Care Program by local government in the Seattle area, and the 70 Canadian cities that have restricted or banned the aesthetic use of pesticides.