The burden of proof of unacceptable risk is then placed on the public who must endure an 'uncontrolled experiment' to the benefit of corporate interests. A senior drug reviewer with Health Canada, once summed up 'the risk' by stating that risk management is the language of corporations and institutions, not the language of public protection. Canadians need to learn about alternatives and need to get their lawns of drugs. We will all benefit from chemical free lawns. It is clear to me, as an ecologist, that lawn chemicals are dangerous to the health of humans and other animals.
Children are especially at risk.
It took us 30 years to act to protect the public and our children from the documented health risks from exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke. It is now an everyday occurrence that the Canadian public, including children walking to and from school, are being exposed repeatedly and involuntarily to non-essential cosmetic lawn and garden pesticides. The government should prove that it is independent of industry's grip and act on its own federal party policy, and on the recommendations of the House of Commons Report on Pesticides and the Federal Commissioner of the Environment, and place a moratorium on non-essential landscape pesticides until they are proven safe. NS Pesticides are most definitely damaging to the health of all living beings. The situation is made more critical for us because humans receive double exposure by ingesting foods with pesticide residues and those animals that have eaten pesticide-ridden foods.