THE CITY'S health committee sat through a marathon session yesterday as speaker after speaker gave their two cents about a proposed bylaw that would ban the use of cosmetic pesticides on lawns.
The meeting began at about 10 a.m. and continued well into the night, with 127 registered delegates voicing their opinions. The vast majority urged the committee to endorse the proposed bylaw.
"I'm here to tell you one thing: Pesticides make me sick," said Allison Leeming, 11, who suffers from environmental sensitivities.
Allison said she wrote her neighbours a letter three years ago, asking them to stop spraying their lawns, but to no avail.
"What they do now is when the pesticide companies spray, they take off the sign right away so it's harder for us to tell if they sprayed or not," she told the committee.
The proposed bylaw would exempt golf courses, farms and rural areas, including villages, such as Manotick. It would also permit the use of pesticides to deal with infestations.
If passed, the bylaw could be phased in beginning Jan. 1, 2006. Bylaw officers wouldn't start charging people who violate the ban until July 1, 2007.
The city's acting medical officer of health, Dr. David Salisbury, told the committee that the city's public education campaign, launched in 2002, hasn't curbed pesticide use.
"The education over the last three years has not demonstrably decreased use and it is time for action," he said.
Salisbury admitted there are shortfalls in scientific research into the health risks of pesticides.
But the medical consensus, said Salisbury, is that there is a link between exposure to pesticides and diseases, such as kidney cancer and leukemia in children, and Parkinson's disease and prostate cancer in seniors.
"In this case, what we're talking about is a risk benefit between having a green lawn and having something in our environment that poses a risk to human health," said Salisbury.
While some opponents of the proposed ban questioned the veracity of the scientific evidence linking exposure to pesticides and health risks, others objected to the infringement on their property rights.
"We still live in a democracy and it is my lawn," said Debbie Jodoin, who is running for the vacant council seat in Orleans.
Thom Bourne, president of Nutri-Lawn, told the committee he wants to work with council to develop a bylaw to regulate the use of pesticides, but not a total ban.
Even if the proposed bylaw passes, the products will still be available in stores, Bourne said.
"The licensed companies are educated and trained to handle these products judiciously and responsibly ... it's the abuse that is the problem, not the use," Bourne said.
The city committee will debate and vote on the proposed bylaw today.
- "My family has been engaged in a struggle with childhood leukemia since May of 2003 and every time I see one of those signs on a lawn warning of pesticide use, I wince."
- "Keep lawn care professionals, these 350 people and their families, in business and vote for more education, and workable compromise for our residents."
- "I'm getting to the point of being for it. Yes, I am (for it)."
- "I don't know. I haven't decided how I'm going to vote yet."
- "If science around the world hasn't decided that these things cause death to humans, it will not be decided at Ottawa City Hall. So, let's get off that focus and focus on the fact that it is irrefutable that it does cause discomfort to a significant number of people, so let's find alternatives and present them to the public."
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