Laura Pedersen

Calgary’s pesticide use has increased by 54 per cent in four years, despite the city’s assurances that it was cutting back on the chemicals. The numbers are contained in a report by the Environmental Management department to be released today, less than a week before aldermen decide whether or not to move forward with a ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides.

The amount of chemicals sprayed on city parks jumped from 2,519 kilograms in 2003 to 3,880 kilograms in 2007. The increase in the use of herbicides — the type of pesticide that targets dandelions and other weeds — leapt by 80 per cent, to 3,564 from 1,976 kilograms.

“We have an Integrated Pest Management Policy, but our pesticide use has actually been going up,” says Ald. Druh Farrell. “We’ve been ignoring our own policy.”

As recently as 2006, in its State of the Environment Report, the city claimed to be cutting pesticide use. In that report, the city measured the use of chemicals in terms of the amount of pesticides used per hectare, which was declining. What the report didn’t indicate was that, as the city was getting bigger, the overall quantity of pesticides used was going up.

Farrell says the city’s Parks department kept that information secret until the Environmental Management department pressed it for the numbers this year. The Park’s department, however, says it was just doing what it was told. “Pesticide use intensity was the measurement that was decided on,” says Simon Wilkins, integrated pest management co-ordinator with the city. “I don’t perceive that there’s any withholding of information going on.”

Anti-pesticide activists say the revelation that the city’s use of chemicals is on the rise is further proof Calgary needs an outright ban. Farrell and two other aldermen introduced a motion to ban the cosmetic use of pesticides earlier this year. Under their plan, the city would stop using pesticides for beautifying city parks in 2009, and homeowners would be banned from using them by the end of 2010. Pesticides could still be used to control weeds if they posed a threat to trees or other plant life.

The proposal goes before city council’s Standing Committee on Land Use and Environment on June 25. If the committee gives the go-ahead, the full council will vote on it in July.

A March 2006 poll suggests that more than 80 per cent of Calgarians favour getting rid of pesticides, and the Canadian Cancer Society links pesticide exposure to leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and several other types of cancer. Robin McLeod, an anti-pesticide campaigner, says the chemicals have also been linked to neurological problems, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and endochrine disruption, which causes lower sperm counts in men and smaller ovaries in women.

“It’s like second-hand smoke, there are a lot of people who are going to be affected,” says McLeod, whose own son suffered from cancer. “There needs to be more study.” For now, she argues it’s better to err on the side of caution and ban pesticides until their risks to the environment and human health are fully known.

“We have to look at lawns in a different way,” says fellow activist Gerald Wheatley, whose neighbourhood park, New Edinborough (5A St. and 3 Ave. N.W.), has been pesticide-free for 10 years. “We’re recognizing that having dandelions around isn’t the end of the world.”

The lawn care industry has opposed a ban, and one of its largest companies dismisses the idea as ineffective. “(The problem is) not the use of the product, it’s the misuse of the product,” says Brian Gibson, vice-president of Green Drop. “The biggest misuse of the product is with homeowners.”

While the city can control its own pesticide use, he says it can’t control how private citizens use the chemicals. It would be more effective to educate homeowners on the proper use of pesticides than trying to enforce an outright ban, he says.