| A new grassroots group called Coalition for a Healthy Calgary has formed to pressure city council to phase out the cosmetic use of pesticides on city and private land by 2008. "The reason for a phase out is most municipalities are doing it. Calgarians are behind other municipalities and Calgarians want it," says Gerald Wheatley, a coalition member. He points out that 84 per cent of Calgarians said that they supported a ban on cosmetic use of pesticides in a 2006 poll. Calgary is the largest Canadian municipality that doesn’t have a pesticide bylaw. One hundred twenty-six communities in Canada have some kind of pesticide bylaw. He says the coalition plans to make the pesticide ban an election issue in the fall municipal election. Three aldermen, Joe Ceci, Diane Colley-Urquhart and Druh Farrell have come out in support of the ban. A ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides would mean no longer spraying to eliminate dandelions, but would allow the city to spray for mosquitoes or pest infestations. "There’s just overwhelming public support for this," says Wheatley.
Calgary currently has five pesticide-free parks. As part of a pilot project, the five parks will be pesticide-free for the next seven years while the city evaluates the cost of maintaining them and determines how much volunteer help it can depend on to maintain the parks. Establishing new pesticide-free parks isn’t an easy process, says Wheatley. Once a community association has established it has wide support for a pesticide-free park, it then enters into a five-year agreement with the city and agrees to pay a certain fee for maintenance.
Implementing a pesticide ban is a "no brainer" says Liberal MLA David Swann. "Why would you risk your health, life, cancer and birth defects in order to control dandelions? It’s not a good idea to put biotoxins into the environment." He says the city’s current policy seems to be that if "it’s cheaper to poison then we’re going to do it."
Coalition member Rebecca O’Brien has a personal reason for wanting to see the pesticide ban. Her 10-year-old daughter is a cancer survivor. Because of the aggressive treatment she received, her body is more susceptible to exposure to toxic substances.
O’Brien is originally from Halifax where there’s a ban on cosmetic use of pesticides. She says it was a "shock" to see people using herbicides to get rid of dandelions and to see the yellow warning signs advising people that the city had used pesticides in public spaces. She says of the Halifax pesticide ban "there were some battles to fight but by and large people are remarkably adjusted to it and quite proud of it."
Simon Wilkins, integrated pest management co-ordinator for the city, says between 2001 and 2005 the City of Calgary reduced its pesticide use by two-thirds. "As far as we’re concerned we’re already not doing cosmetic spraying," he says. "We’re just not out there for beautification purposes." He says, for example, the city would only spot spray for dandelions where there was a large enough concentration to warrant it. Wilkins says the city always seeks out the least toxic alternative to deal with weed, insect or rodent problems. However, he says the product has to also be effective in order to protect Calgary’s green spaces.
There has been mounting scientific evidence about the harm pesticides can cause to human health. In 2004, The Ontario College of Family Physicians 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. |
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