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Council should ban pesticide use - Suzanne Harvey

Spring is here and the issue of cosmetic pesticides is heating up across the country-almost everywhere, it seems, except in Sudbury.

Spring is here and the issue of cosmetic pesticides is heating up across the country-almost everywhere, it seems, except in Sudbury.

More than  70 Canadian municipalities now have bylaws restricting cosmetic pesticide use because of their serious health and environmental risks.

Peterborough just enacted one, North Bay and Toronto  both have one. Quebec will ban several cosmetic pesticides province-wide as of April. But here in Sudbury we are having difficulty getting the issue onto city council radar.

The Sudbury and District Health Unit has a position paper ready to be presented to council.

Pesticide Free Sudbury, the local citizen's action group, has a petition asking for a bylaw signed by 1,500 concerned citizens, but twice now, the issue has been removed from city council's agenda.

The whole thing is really very sad. Here is an issue deemed so important by the College of Family Physicians of Ontario that it wrote a lengthy position paper about the serious detrimental effects of pesticides on children.

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment advocates banning these chemicals. Sudbury's chapter of the Canadian Cancer Society, in keeping with the national agenda, has written to the city in support of a bylaw. Even the Supreme Court of Canada has twice upheld such bylaws and has encouraged municipalities to use the precautionary principle ("When an activity poses a threat to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken, even when the cause and effect relationship are not fully established scientifically.") as a guide in such matters.

There is plenty of reputable research that condemns the continued use of cosmetic pesticides.

And not only are these chemicals dangerous, they are unnecessary because there are plenty of safe, healthy, and  more effective ways to care for lawns and gardens.

It is obvious the medical community and other knowledgeable groups take this issue seriously. Many Canadians from across the country are taking it seriously.

I believe that it is time for Sudbury to acknowledge the dangers of pesticides and to give the issue its rightful place on the city council agenda.

But then again, maybe we value our precious chemicals above the health of our children. Now that really is very sad.

Suzanne Harvey
Pesticide Free Sudbury