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Chemical Warfare & Your Lawn

By Jim and Sukie Wachtendonk

We are compelled once again to write this letter with an appeal to Madison residents. To those who chemically treat their lawns please, please consider your neighbors before you spray. Many of us are extremely sensitive to the myriad of herbicides and pesticides you use on your lawn.

Most of the 50,000 pesticides products registered (licensed) for use today have not been fully tested and evaluated in accordance with current testing requirements. Due to the vast number of toxins on the market, and the costs to adequately test them, the EPA estimates that it will be well into the 21st century before that task will be completed. In the interim, the general public will continue to be exposed to hazardous pesticides.

In fact, according to a General Accounting Office (GAO) repost published in April 1986, "The public is not told about the uncertainties surrounding chronic or long-term health risks." It further states that "pesticide manufactures' advertising sometimes claims that pesticides and herbicides are safe and have low toxicity."

"EPA believes that no pesticide can be considered safe and is concerned that such claims discourage users from following label directions cautiously." Professional applicators, such as lawn care companies and pest control companies, for years have claimed that the pesticides and herbicides they use are "safe," "harmless," and EPA approved.

The GAO report states that "not only is the public poorly informed about the risks associated with herbicide and pesticide use, they are not told that they have not been tested for chronic health effects in accordance with current standards. Moreover, the chemical industry makes safety claims that the EPA considers to be false and misleading."

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act as amended authorizes several types of enforcement action, including civil and criminal penalties, but enforcement action for unacceptable safety claims is a low EPA priority.

Professional applicators, in discussing the safety of pesticides and herbicides, state that they are EPA registered. EPA differentiates between the terms "registered" and "approved." It is, in fact, unlawful for pesticide labels and distributors' promotional materials to states that their chemicals are EPA approved as this implies the EPA endorses or recommends the product. They do not because they are not safe.

According to the GAO report, "Medical researchers believe that chemical sensitivity causes a wide range of physical and behavioral symptoms in people who do not realize that herbicides, pesticides and other substances are the source of their illness."

"These, severe, acute reactions include fatigue, headaches, muscular aches, eye irritation, coughing, dizziness, motor instability, forgetfulness, depression, hyperactivity and irritability in people. The chronic effects are mutagenic or cause genetic changes in subsequent generations. They are teratogenic and cause birth defects. They also cause tumor formations in living tissue."

In 1980 the city sprayed across the street from our home at Warner Park. Our son suffered the classic symptoms of toxic exposure. He also suffered a major seizure. We lost the only home we probably will ever own. The Department of Agriculture and the EPA issued warnings and fines to the city and the applicator.

We worked long and hard for a moratorium to end the usage of 2, 4-D on city parks and property. Since that time we have had to continually take action to deal with pesticides and herbicides in the lakes, on school playgrounds and on neighbors' lawns. We've had to move four times to avoid re-exposure which severely affects our family's health.

This past Wednesday, at 8am, my children and I were forced, once again, to flee our home. A city-subsided apartment complex for elderly and disabled persons across our street had hired a commercial applicator and was in the process of defoliating sections of two large city blocks with herbicides.

We are very weary of moving. I hate the feeling in the pit of my stomach when I see a Chemlawn or Tru Green truck parked in my neighborhood. I know that I must frantically gather my children and evacuate my home before your chemical assault begins.

I am weary of battling multinational corporations, agronomists, and bureaucrats who continue to swear to the safety of these products. Please reconsider your decisions to use toxic chemicals on your lawn and gardens- -there are other alternatives. Send for the GAO report and educate yourselves. Weigh the benefits and risks of using toxins on your families, your neighbors and our environment!

If you must spray, please post the area (ahead of time if possible) to notify your neighbors that you are using chemicals that quite possibly can be harmful to everyone. Thanks you!

Jim and Sukie Wachtendonk
(From the Madison, WI, Capital Times.)