Ontario pesticide ban in works

Wed, January 16, 2008
By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, SUN MEDIA QUEEN’S PARK BUREAU CHIEF

The Dalton McGuinty government will move shortly on an election promise to ban the cosmetic use of pesticides.

“We’re looking forward to introducing that (law) in our spring session,” McGuinty said yesterday.
About 40 per cent of Ontarians are covered by municipal bans on cosmetic pesticide use.

A coalition of environmentalists and health-care groups yesterday urged the Liberal government to move quickly to bring in comprehensive legislation that would protect all provincial citizens from what they consider needless exposure to harmful chemicals.

Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, said pesticides have been linked to serious illnesses, including cancer, and pose a particular risk to pregnant women and children.

“Young children, in particular, have more hand-to-mouth contact and are more likely to ingest these dangerous contaminants as they explore the world around them,” Grinspun said.

Peter MacLeod, vice- president of CropLife Canada, said in a news release that regulations of pest-control products in lawn and garden care should be based on scientific evidence.

And to add to the Crop Life sentiments: During one of the Standing Committee hearing meetings, a chemical company’s representative from Crop Life said this when I asked him the following question: (from Hansard, December 11th, 2007)

Ms. Dunsford: - do you agree that in 10 to
15 years that science may actually improve
and change, and there could be a tiny
possibility that pesticides could be shown to
be harmful in a very small way?

Lorne Hepworth: I can’t say there’s zero
risk, but I doubt it very much. The reason I
do is, quite frankly, when it comes to
pesticides, as you’ll see in one of the papers
in your binder, pesticides are actually part of
the solution in terms of dealing with cancer.
That paper is a foremost international paper
that was done that made the point that by
using pesticides we actually increase the
production of fruits and vegetables which
have been shown to reduce the incidence of
pesticides. That’s the point that paper
makes, that pesticides don’t contribute to
cancer, they actually decrease the incidence
of cancer.