Appeal to your representative Senators!

Toxic chemicals surround us. We envelope ourselves and our children in toxic perfumed laundry detergents; we smear our bodies and hair with untested creams, gels and shampoos. We further damage our health with pesticides used in lawn and garden care, and in agriculture. It is time for legislation to replace the never adequate and very outdated Toxics Substances Control Act. To view each entry, just click on the title or link(s) within each entry.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Cornell on Turf Pesticides

Cornell University provides excellent information on lawn pesticides: "Estimating the cancer-causing potential of a specific pesticide product involves many factors, such as the amount of active ingredient contained in the product, the application methods and rates used, proper use of personal protective equipment, and frequency and degree of exposure to the pesticide over time. Current federal pesticide labeling laws require pesticide manufacturers to include only acute (short-term), and not chronic (long-term) health risk information on pesticide labels. Therefore, product-specific cancer risk information is not available. Some states, such as California and Massachusetts, require that pesticides sold in those states carry labels specifying whether or not the product's active ingredients have been identified as health hazards, such as carcinogens, reproductive toxins, etc. Other states may include this information on their labels as well. Current federal law requires that only active ingredients be listed on a pesticide product label. The names and health hazards of other substances in the product, called "inert" or "other" ingredients, are not required to be listed on the product label. Therefore, because this information is not publicly available, the cancer risks associated with inert / active ingredients contained in pesticide turf grass products could not be included in this database. Only cancer risk information on active ingredients is included."