| The Sierra Club and a new group, Calgarians for Pesticide Free Parks, are calling on city council to phase out the cosmetic use of pesticides, pointing to the results of a recent poll that showed most Calgarians are in support of such a move.
The Sierra Club of Canada and the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment commissioned the poll, which surveyed 500 Calgarians – 84 per cent supported phasing out the cosmetic use of pesticides in public parks, and 82 per cent supported it on private residential property. Cosmetic use of pesticides would include using pesticides to kill dandelions on your lawn, but would not include spraying to kill mosquitoes. The poll was conducted by Oraclepoll Research.
Robin McLeod, spokesperson for Calgarians for Pesticide Free Parks, which formed in December, says dozens of other municipalities in Canada have already restricted the use of cosmetic pesticides and Calgary should, too, in order to eliminate potential health risks.
"With the amount of toxic burden with which we’re faced day to day in our lives, this is one area where you can cut it out," she says. "I don’t want my children and other people’s children and their pets exposed to unnecessary chemicals and I also don’t want our wildlife exposed to chemicals."
McLeod says pesticide use is comparable to the second-hand smoke issue because people don’t have any control over exposure to pesticides.
"I have my lawn and garden that I don’t use any chemicals on. Why should I sit in my backyard and breathe in what my neighbours are spraying?" she asks.
McLeod is currently involved in trying to turn River Park, an off-leash area above Sandy Beach, into a pesticide-free park. She says the city’s current policy of making users pay for pesticide-free parks is unfair.
"There’s absolutely no way that South Calgary Community Association is going to ante up the money because River Park is used by people all over the city walking their dogs, so it’s not just a community association issue. It’s an issue that affects a lot of different people."
Gideon Forman, executive director of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, says there are many non-toxic alternatives that don’t have health risks that can be used on yards or in parks to eliminate pests.
"Pesticides are a threat to water, to aquatic life, to amphibians and other animals in the environment, and they’re a big threat to people, particularly children," he says.
Forman describes the city policy of making community associations pay for pesticide-free parks as "nonsense."
"It’s just crap. First of all, in Calgary and Alberta generally, there’s a phenomenal amount of wealth. Everyone knows that, and so do the city and the province have the money to protect our parks and make them safe for pets and for children? Absolutely they do," he says.
Forman points to a study done by the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) in 2004 on the potential health risks from pesticides. The OCFP recommended that people reduce their exposure to pesticides whenever possible due to the links between pesticide exposure and various forms of cancer, reproductive problems and neurological problems. The organization pointed out that children are particularly susceptible to health risks from pesticide exposure.
Simon Wilkins, integrated pest management co-ordinator for the City of Calgary, says the city has already greatly reduced pesticide use since 1997 and has programs in place to try and encourage homeowners to also reduce their pesticide use.
"The city itself, the corporation, has reduced its use by about 70 to 75 per cent. At the same time homeowners are using pesticides at a rate of about 30 to 40 times our use," says Wilkins.
The city has a healthy yards program, which educates people about the least toxic methods they can use to have a healthy yard. Wilkins says the City of Calgary and the City of Edmonton have also asked the province to ban products that combine both herbicides and fertilizers, such as Weed and Feed, because Wilkins says the products are often overused or misused.
"The approach we want to take is to try and set the example and educate people on best practices."
Wilkins says the city has two pesticide-free parks in place, and any community can have one as long as the community association is willing to pay for the extra maintenance required if the city isn’t using pesticides there.
"It’s not that difficult for people who would like that to happen to raise the money, but when you start talking about our whole park system, it would be a huge amount of taxpayer money required to do things like that on a large-scale basis," says Wilkins.
Barb Kinnie of the Sierra Club says the city has to go further because of the negative health and environmental impacts of pesticides.
"I think one of the things we really have to get over in Calgary is our weed neurosis and addiction. We’re addicted to pesticides…. I think people really have to change their perception. We really have to be a little more tolerant. We have to realize that weeds aren’t the end of the world – we will never eradicate them anyway," she says. |
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