Toxic Lawns
In a few weeks we’ll start to see a profusion of dandelion-yellow "Pesticides Applied" signs sprout on lawns across the country. They’ll warn humans to keep of the grass. Unfortunately the family dog can’t read, nor can native song birds, squirrels, and other wildlife.
Pesticides and herbicides containers contain warnings such as "Keep out of reach of children." On the U.S. EPA website there is a publication titled "Citizen’s Guide to Pest Control and Pesticide Safety". The table of contents has sections such as "Reducing Your Exposure When Others Use Pesticides", ‘Poisoned by pesticides: Don’t Let This Happen to Your Child!", "Handling a Pesticide Emergency" and finally "Help! Someone’s been Poisoned! What To Do in a Pesticide Emergency".
The U.S. Geological Survey states that about 1,000,000,000 pounds of pesticides are applied annually. How does that affect life on our planet? One metric is that it is estimated that each year 67,000,000 birds are killed by pesticides in the U.S. What about us and our children?
The U.S. EPA published a document in January, 2002 titled "Protecting Children from Pesticides" warns that "Kids need Protection… Children play on the lawn where pesticides are commonly applied, or put objects in their mouths, increasing the chances of exposure to pesticides. Adverse affects of pesticide exposure (include) serious long-term, neurological, developmental and reproductive disorders."
There are hundreds of studies whose results raise further concerns. One area being investigated is the connection between pesticide exposure and the rapid rise in the incidence of autism. The Los Angeles Times reported the following on July 30, 2007:
"Pesticide Link to Autism Suspected: A state study suggests two farm sprays may raise chances of having a child with the disorder."
"Women who live near California farm fields sprayed with organochlorine pesticides may be more likely to give birth to children with autism, according to a study by state health officials to be published today.
The rate of autism among the children of 29 women who lived near the fields was extremely high, suggesting that exposure to the insecticides in the womb might have played a role. The study is the first to report a link between pesticides and the neurological disorder, which affects one in every 150 children."
The development of synthetic pesticides occurred as an offshoot of the creation and dispersal of weaponized chemical agents during World War II. After the war new markets were sought for these poisons. Today it is a business worth many tens of billions of dollars. And advertising has created a demand that previously didn’t exist – the need for a weed-free, insect-free, resource devouring green lawn.
Almost half of all Americans poisoned themselves with cigarettes at the height of the tobacco industry’s influence. Not long ago, nonsmoking airplane passengers had no choice but to breathe clouds of smoke as other passengers lit up cigarettes in the next row. Restaurant patrons smelled acrid tobacco smoke along with their meals, and many employees in shared workspaces had to share air clouded with second-hand smoke. I myself smoked and remember being in crowded closed-door conference rooms where the majority of people smoked, often simultaneously.
But we know what we are doing and it makes no sense to use poisons that are known to impair and/or destroy children's lives and their ability to think and develop normally to have a weed-free lawn. We've been bingeing on volatile synthetic pesticide poisons far too long. When you apply pesticides to your lawn, it gets into your home, into your drinking water, into your neighbor’s home and their drinking water, into the runoff water and the watershed.
And it is possible to have a beautiful lawn without monthly applications of fertilizers, pesticides, and pre- and post-emergent herbicides. I’ve done it for 15 years on my own property. And after you have made the change, the annual cost is actually less than applying all those chemicals.
Your lawn does not need a chemical IV drip. Like other garden plants -- and us, for that matter -- grass plants need a healthy growing environment, good nutrition, and reasonable care. Lawns are just a bunch of grass plants -- like the stuff that grows wild in the prairies.
Next week we’ll continue this important topic and discuss how easy and pleasant it is to have a toxic-free lawn.
