In 2003, the city of Halifax banned the use of “cosmetic pesticides,” those chemicals applied to lawns. The city’s law is easily ignored because the banned chemicals are still available for sale at most home and garden supply stores. But now the province is proposing its own law against pesticides, which should halt those sales once and for all.
Currently, Quebec and Ontario prohibit the sale of specified chemicals for lawn care. But New Brunswick and PEI ban the use of chemicals applied through hose-end nozzles, which also covers less dangerous products HRM and Nova Scotia want to encourage people to use, like corn gluten. The proposed Nova Scotian law is more in line with the Quebec and Ontario laws.
The Department of Environment has published a discussion paper on the proposed law (tinyurl.com/NSPesticides), and wants public input before March 7. —TB
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 3, 2010.
I’m a horticulturist in the U.S. I’ve been trying to get a handle on what’s going on in Canada with lawn chemicals. Can you give me a synopsis? Neil Moran/moranneil@hotmail.com.
What’s going on is that the local enviro-crazies have succeeded in overwhelming any actual federal studies on the matter and have made weed and feed a controlled substance. Totally ridiculous. I sense a business opportunity for mail-order delivery of lawn care products.
The so-called enviro-crazies have used peer-reviewed independent (not industry-sponsored) data strongly linking pesticide exposure to numerous life-threatening chronic illnesses to convince a few provincial governments (and hundreds of municipal governments)to do the right thing: ban all unnecessary pesticides. The federal studies on the matter are based on industry-provided data. Fox and henhouse anyone? Bo Gus, your rant reminds me of the tobacco industry bullshit of yester-year. Old spin dies hard.
By the way, the real business opportunity exists for landscapers with the business acumen to go organic. They’re making a killing in Halifax, and in Quebec, where lawn pesticides have been banned for years.
They’re making a killing all right, getting people to spend big bucks on organic products that don’t work and on manual labor that is many times greater than what is otherwise required. I would be happy if they would just make a killing versus dandelions.
I find it awful that nothing is mentioned about nicotine. It has to be one of the most readily available pesticides and is “organic” under Canadian law, and it’s certainly one of the most toxic chemicals out there.
I’m onside withthe Brady Bunch…remember that old show. You want a nice green perfectly sculptured lawn…asphault it & cover the asphault with green outdoor carpet.
Problem solved.
Lawn chemicals are banned in HRM but they are still sold at the stores for use so what exactly is the point of a ban???!!!