Pesticide facts

• Definition of cosmetic (or ornamental) pesticides: Pesticides, including herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and rodenticides, used to simply prevent blemishes and other imperfections on private and public lands are referred to as the cosmetic (or ornamental) use of pesticides.
  
  
• Scientific evidence linking pesticide exposure and cancer risk for adults and children is suggestive and growing: Following a literature review on the evidence linking pesticides and cancer, the Ontario College of Family Physicians (2004) concluded that there is a statistically significant association between pesticide exposure and certain types of cancer. (www.ocfp.on.ca)
  
  
  • The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and others, has concluded that some substances in pesticides are known, probable, or possible carcinogens.
    
    
  • The U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) has recognized that pesticides can be potentially cancer-causing for humans.
    
    
  • A Report of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development (Ottawa, May 2000) entitled Pesticides: Making the Right Choice for the Protection of health and the Environment notes: “Children, for many reasons, make up the group that is the most vulnerable to pesticides, because of their developmental and physiological characteristics, their daily activities which are different from those of adults, and the fact that the fetus and the newborn are exposed to pollutants accumulated in the mother's body. Current research programs in Canada do not take these specificities into account and the information available to the general public is inadequate.”
    
    
  • The list of cancers associated with pesticide exposure include childhood and adult leukemia, childhood brain cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, neuroblastoma, brain cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer and some lung cancers.
    
    
• The health of children deserves special consideration: Children may be at greater risk of exposure to pesticides since they often crawl/play on grass. If pesticides were applied to the area, children may inhale the pesticides, absorb them through their skin, or swallow pesticide residues because they place their hands and other objects in their mouths. Swallowing pesticides/pesticide residue, especially by children, can be very dangerous.
  
  
• Even individuals who do not work directly with pesticides can be exposed to them: Pesticides that are sprayed can drift or runoff and mix with the air, soil, or a surrounding body of water. Pesticides can also collect on plants and objects that people can come in contact with.
  
  
• Albertans are supportive: Our 2008 CheckMate public opinion poll of 790 urban, Alberta residents shows an average of 85% of Alberta citizens support restrictions on cosmetic pesticides used on private and public lands. Sixty-nine percent of Albertans believe that pesticide-free bylaws are a health issue.
  
  
• Pesticide-free bylaws are effective: Three years after implementation of a pesticide-free bylaw in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a public poll commissioned by the city shows that 93% of respondents reported that they no longer use pesticides. No municipality who enacted a pesticide-free bylaw has rescinded it due to lack of effectiveness.
  
  
• Many health and environmental organizations support pesticide-free legislation in Alberta including the: The College and Association of Family Physicians of Alberta, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the Council for Canadians Prairie Chapter and the Sierra Club of Canada Prairie Chapter.

The use of cosmetic pesticides has no countervailing health benefit
and the potential for harm exists.