Five years ago, Marblehead, Mass. recognized that “all citizens, particularly children, as well as other inhabitants of our natural environment, have a right to protection from exposure to hazardous chemicals, and pesticides in particular.” Marblehead prohibits use of lawn chemicals on all town-owned land and on public school grounds, mandates education of Marblehead's landscape employees in organic turf management, establishes a citizens advisory committee, and encourages the elimination of toxic pesticides on private property.

A Marblehead Board of Health employee told me the ordinance hasn't harmed lawn care businesses. Instead, it encouraged them, and private homeowners, to adopt safer lawn care practices.

Commonly used lawn chemicals, including herbicide sprays and granules, have been linked to air and water pollution, global warming, poisoning of wildlife and domestic animals, and to cancer, Parkinson's disease, neurotoxic effects, hyperactivity disorders, asthma, allergies and birth defects for humans.

Because children are 10 times more susceptible than adults to lawn chemicals' hazards, schools in Cayuga County should all immediately prohibit any more chemical applications on school grounds. Six years ago, when state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer released “Pesticide Use at New York Schools” (www.OAG.state.ny.us), which urged schools not to use chemicals on their lawns or athletic fields, 37 percent of New York's schools had already stopped using these chemicals outdoors. Schools in Cayuga County should follow such good examples.

Spitzer said, “Pesticides pose health risks, even when used and applied in full compliance with manufacturers' recommendations and legal requirements.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency warns: “All pesticides are toxic. The commonplace, widely spread use of pesticides is both a major environmental problem and a public health issue.”

And most commonly used fertilizers also wreak havoc on our environment.

So let's all keep our lawns chemical free.

Joel Freedman

Canandaigua