Privacy Policy

PESTICIDES

Pesticides is a broad umbrella term that includes insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Some people rely on these products to make their yards beautiful and pest-free. However these products are not risk free.

Much like seedlings carried by wind, pesticides don't necessarily stay where you put them. They may drift from one yard to another and even get tracked into neighbors' houses. Pesticidal residue can easily be transported into clothes, carpets, food, and bedding. They come inside on the bottoms of shoes, on the tips of gardening gloves, and on pet's fur.

If you have children or grandchildren, think carefully before using pesticides. In general children are more heavily exposed to pesticides than the average adult. Pound for pound, developing children take in more air, water, and food than adults and thus take a greater volume and number of chemicals into their bodies. Children are also closer to the ground where chemicals are sprayed. Children often put their hands, blades of grass or other objects in their mouths. (Go to the Safe Schools program for information on reducing pesticides use in schools.)

Pesticides also leach into the groundwater and are washed from fields, gardens, and lawns by rain and are a source of pollution in streams, rivers, and lakes. Concentrations of pesticides in surface water rise sharply each spring with heavy residential use.

So, spraying the lawn for annoying weeds or spraying the garden for insects, is, in effect, spraying ourselves, our children, grandchildren, neighbors, and our waterways.

Green lawns and vibrant gardens do not have to be sacrificed in order to avoid these risks.