Pesticide News 

Are Our Pets Canaries in a Coal Mine? - Click here for HealthLink's PETLINK

Beyond Pesticides

A Chemical Reaction: a documentary When Dr. June Irwin noticed a connection between her patients health condtions and exposure to chemical pesticides a movement began ...

Ontario to prohibit 85 cosmetic pesticides - March 4 , 2009

The Ontario government is set to announce sweeping new regulations that will prohibit the use of 85 chemical substances, found in roughly 250 lawn and garden products, from use on neighborhood lawns.

Lawsuit seeks EPA pesticide data in disappearance of honeybees

SFGate - August 19, 2008

Household Exposure to Pesticides and Risk of Childhood Hematopoietic Malignancies: The ESCALE Study

Environmental Health Perspectives, July 2008 Vol 11 Number 7

USDA axes national survey charting pesticide use

AP, Thursday, May 22, 2008

Pesticide Parkinson's Strong Link

BBC News, March 28, 2008

Pesticides Too Harmful to Use in Any Form, Doctors Warn

Ontario College of Family Physicians Report, April 2004  

     The link between common household pesticides and fetal defects, neurological damage and the most deadly cancers is strong enough that family doctors in Ontario are urging citizens to avoid the chemicals in any form.

    The frightening message came yesterday when the Ontario College of Family Physicians released the most comprehensive study ever done in Canada on the chronic effects of pesticide exposure at home, in the garden and at work.

    "The review found consistent evidence of the health risks to patients with exposure to pesticides," the study said, naming brain cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer and leukemia among many other acute illnesses.

TruGreen ChemLawn "Honored" with 2003 Dirty Dozen Award

North Andover, December 4, 2003 

    Citing their widespread promotion and use of toxic pesticides on residential lawns and town fieldsacross the region, HealthLink members from Marblehead and Swampscott joined Toxics Action Center of Boston to present TruGreen/ChemLawn with a 2003 "Dirty Dozen Award" at their headquarters in North Andover.

"TruGreen/ChemLawn is turning our yards and playing fields into toxic dump sites," said Kathleen Klett of HeathLink. "These pesticides are dangerous for our kids and our pets. All pesticides are poisons, that's why when you go to dispose of pesticides it is considered hazardous waste."

The citizen groups refer to scientific studies linking pesticide use on lawnsto increased risk of childhood illnesses including, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, brain cancer, leukemia and neurological disorders a major reason for citing TruGreen/ChemLawn.

The award highlights ChemLawn's widespread marketing tactics through their partnership with US Youth Soccer as an example of their disregard for the health and safety of children.

"It's time for TruGreen/ChemLawn to come clean and educate consumers about the dangers of pesticide use on lawns and playing fields," said Jay Rasku, Field Director for Toxics Action Center. "Instead, ChemLawn has begun an advertising campaign using children in US Youth Soccer programs to market their products to soccer parents. This marketing strategy is dangerous and wrong, since exposure to pesticides is a health threat to the developing bodies of children."

Nate Leeson, 8 years old, a Marblehead Youth Soccer player, carried a sign which said, "Please Don't Poison My Pets!" He said "I feel that ChemLawn should not be 'spreaded' because it could make our pets sick." His mother added "None of us are blindfolded to the serious health issues that effect today's society. We should all take preventative measures especially when it concerns our children."