Letters to Councillors in support of banning the cosmetic use of pesticides in the City of Guelph.
Firstly, I applaud your decision to finally allocate monies for education about pesticides into the current budget. The by-law that was approved in principle by the previous council is weak. It would be extremely difficult to enforce, and allows on many days of the year spraying of noxious chemicals solely for cosmetic reasons. I feel that the public can only benefit from your planned education campaign.I have spoken to council before on this issue, and a number of other local physicians share my concern that pesticides are a health risk to the community.
As you have likely heard before, in 2004 the Ontario College of Family Physicians published a Pesticide Literature Review, which examined 250 different studies. In this review, positive associations were found between pesticide exposures and solid tumors, leukemia, chromosome aberrations, adverse reproductive effects in adults, as well as cancer and eurodevelopmental effects in children.
We just don’t know enough yet about pesticides and their effects to gamble the health of our citizens, and of future generations. A common misconception is that pesticides must be safe, since they are approved by Health Canada. In 2003, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada issued a report titled “Managing the Safety and Accessibility of Pesticides”. Some of its main points are as follows:
1.”…the federal government is not adequately ensuring that many pesticides used in Canada meet current standards for protecting health and the quality of the environment”.
2. “If users do not comply with the Pest Control Products Act or follow the instructions on pesticide labels, they may risk their health. They may also increase the risk to their families, other people, or the environment. The Agency does not know to what extent pesticide users are complying with the Act and associated regulations”.
3. “Health Canada has done only limited research on the health effects of pesticides despite the federal government’s stated priority in this area”.
4. “Efforts to monitor the health and environmental impacts of pesticides are hampered by a lack of information about their use and adverse effects, by an incomplete set of national guidelines for water quality monitoring, and by a lack of suitable methods to measure pesticides”.
5. “The Pest Management Regulatory Agency is not meeting its targets for evaluating new pesticides. As a result, it is not providing timely access to new, possibly safer, products –a key concern for farmers.”
As you can appreciate, the safety of pesticides is dubious at best. As mayor and as councillors, your duty is to help and protect the citizens you represent. It would be negligent to allow the continued uncontrolled use of these products for cosmetic purposes. As 127 other Canadian municipalities already have done, I ask you to direct City Staff to draft a by-law to phase out completely the use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes. Guelph Family Physician
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First of all Congratulations on your election – you all worked incredibly hard and ran amazing campaigns.
It is just so wonderful to have a positive, progressive, intelligent, sustainable, and upbeat spirit coming out of City Hall!As a Ward 2 resident, I hope the following will be your priorities:
1. Please stop the insane development and sprawl and destruction of our natural environment. Please do not allow Wal-mart to expand to a grocery store. For years what this community has needed is a grocery store in the DOWNTOWN core!! Not another grocery store that we have to drive to!
2. Please make a new main library your top priority. Our library is a disgrace – absolutely pathetic.
3. Please do not forget about the PESTICIDE by-law. Our residents need to be protected from toxic chemicals – we need to follow the precautionary principle when it comes to chemical use in this city, both residential and organizational. Please stop the spraying as many other progressive communities have already done.
Thanks for listening and don’t be afraid to take a stand on these issues – you have a lot of people backing you up! JB
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I just received an unsolicited call from Weed Man and I’m deeply concerned
that these companies will be able to continue applying toxins to the
environment. I’d like to think that here in Guelph, we are doing whatever it
takes to curtail toxic chemicals in the environment. Can you please tell me
what action we can look forward to from this council in achieving a healthy,
pesticide free life in Guelph? Many thanks. NL