New Jersey Has Twin Bills Pending to Restrict Pesticide Use

First Connecticut, then New York and now, New Jersey with New Hampshire and Maine close behind. Is this a race? Well, yes, in a sense. It is about legislation to restrict the use of pesticides on school grounds, playing fields and parks. Our children's health is most at risk from exposures to synthetic pesticides for lawns. These states along with the Canadian government, European countries, entire New Jersey municipalities, townships in Massachusetts, the City of Anchorage, Alaska... are doing the right thing. We are being exposed to too many toxic chemicals that we think we do not have choices about, or forget that we have control over, but we do have control! Empower yourself and your family: you can easily find alternatives to using conventional lawn chemicals. It is your right to have control over your exposures to harmful chemicals and we can start today by decreasing the exposures right beneath our feet--in our lawns and gardens. I and others share grave concerns for our children and for all of us.

Harvard School of Public Health: Pesticide Exposures & Increased Risk of Parkinson's

Research by the Harvard School of Public Health found a connection between home pesticide use and Parkinson's Disease.

Current Studies Show Impact of Pesticide Exposures to Children

Children are exposed to pesticides before they are born, not just from agriculture, lawns and playing fields, the air and water. "At age 2, children of mothers who had the highest levels of breakdown products from organophosphate pesticides in their urine had the greatest risk of "pervasive developmental disorder." Symptoms include behavioral effects like being afraid to try new things, inability to tolerate anything out of place, and avoiding looking others in the eye—all signs consistent with autism spectrum behavior. By age 5, children who had been exposed to the most pesticides in the womb were at greater risk of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As the children continue to grow, researchers are now studying whether the greatest prenatal exposures are linked to learning disabilities, behavior problems, asthma, diabetes and obesity."

Bees and the Pesticide Burden

We have been hearing about deformities in frogs for years. Now we are hearing about dwindling bee and bat populations and pesticides appear to be major culprits for their decline.

The Value of Clover for Lawns

Clover is not a bad word. Bees use it for their honey and it is good for the health of our soil. There are many reasons why we should have clover on our lawns.

Mt Sinai Medical Center on Pesticides as Toxic

Mt Sinai Hospital promotes limiting our exposures to toxic chemicals and the avoidance of lawn pesticides. "Heavy use of pesticides. More than 1.2 million pounds of pesticides — many of them toxic to the brain and nervous system — are applied in the United States each year. These chemical pesticides are used on lawns and gardens, and inside homes, schools, day-care centers and hospitals. The United States has 1.3 percent of the world’s population but uses 24 percent of the world’s total pesticides."

Pesticide Exposure Linked to Parkinson's and Endocrine Disruption

The latest on Endocrine Disruption from pesticide exposures from Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility and Science and Environmental Health Network: "Pesticides: A large body of data links exposure to a variety of pesticides with increased risks for Parkinson's disease. Evidence also links chronic low dose exposure to a number of pesticides-- primarily in the work setting-- with subsequent cognitive decline, such as impaired memory and attention. A study in France found that a history of occupational exposure to pesticides more than doubled the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Exposure to some pesticides has also been linked to dramatically increased risks of diabetes, pre-diabetes, and metabolic syndrome."

Toxics Action Center for information on Hazards of Lawn Chemicals

One of the most concise and helpful groups for understanding the subject of toxic lawn chemicals is the Toxics Action Center, an advocacy group I have had the pleasure of working with this past year during New Hampshire's push for state legislation to regulate pesticide use on school grounds and playing fields.

Safe Chemicals Act

Only recently has it come to light that our government has permitted tens of thousands of chemicals to be "on the market"-- in our air, our homes our workplaces, our waterways, our bodies... without proper testing. Some of these hazardous to our health chemicals are pesticides used on our lawns and grounds, in agriculture and inside school buildings, hospitals and so on. Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey has introduced legislation which will begin to fix our inadequate system for regulating these toxins.

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, A Real Problem

Many people have knowingly and unknowingly developed multiple chemical sensitivies. This occurs from, you guessed it, multiple chemical exposures. That dizziness, general malaise, skin rash, and so on are not "allergies". It appears that few doctors are aware of this illness because they are often sending us to the allergist or dermatologist or even the psychologist for such complaints. Suffice to say, you and yours could very well have MCS. What to do? Avoid chemicals. Not so easy but we can begin by avoiding those close to home-- lawn chemicals and indoor pesticide use.

Inheritance Tax from Pesticides...

We need to be aware of the fact that the chemical products that we put on our lawns or in our homes to get rid of weeds and bugs can have serious health effects on generations to come.