What’s the problem?
Pesticide spraying.
How do you organize your community to reduce or eliminate toxic pesticide use?
Far too often, the use of toxic pesticides is a case of the cure being worse than the disease. The chemicals used to kill weeds, insects, fungi or rodents inevitably find their way into the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and even the breast milk of nursing mothers.
Exposure to pesticides has been linked to cancer, kidney and liver damage, reproductive health effects, Parkinson’s disease and even brain damage in children.
Yet old habits, even ones with serious health risks, die hard. Government agencies, golf courses, parks and even playgrounds keep spraying pesticides that can harm human health and the environment. How do you get them to stop and find safer alternatives? With our help, community groups have found a way:
- South Portland, Maine: Protect South Portland won one of the strongest pesticides restrictions in the country. The ordinance banned the use of toxic pesticides starting with city property, then residential property, and then golf courses.
- Champlain Valley, Vermont: Champlain Valley residents successfully limited the spraying of pesticides to control mosquitoes on farms, schools and waterways. By transitioning to safer, nontoxic methods, residents worked to ensure this toxic spraying no longer threatened their community.
- Nationwide: Consumer action has convinced at least 65 garden retailers to commit to restrict their sales of pesticides. The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart, Costco and True Value are among them.