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The E.P.A. identifies pesticide risks to children as causing a range of health problems that include asthma, hyperactivity and behavior problems, cancer, learning disabilities, reproductive disorders, and compromised brain development. Children spend more time playing outdoors on the grass and indoors on carpeting where lawn chemicals have been brought in on shoes.

Parents can protect their children by:

1. discontinuing the use of all pesticides on lawns,
2. keeping all pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides out of children's sight and reach,
3. instructing your garden care professional to STOP using these toxic chemicals and change to a natural, pesticide-free lawn and garden,
4. buying local, organic fruits and vegetables, and thoroughly washing all produce,
5. working with school administration to eliminate pesticides from the school environment,
6. and encouraging good habits, such as washing hands after playing outdoors and taking shoes off at the door.

“Organic lawn care is, for the most part, common sense.” As SafeLawns.org says, “Once you get beyond the big advertising that has given most Americans the idea that pay and spray is the only way to have a lawn to be proud of, the pieces start to fall in place. You realize that the plants want to grow and that our job is mostly to give them the conditions to do so and then get out of the way.”

Keep it healthy and green: by taking care of the soil and the micro-organisms that live in it, and chose appropriate plants (grass or otherwise) to grow in it, it is easier than you think! Try Bradfield Organic Fertilizers (http://www.bradfieldorganics.com/index.html)

Physicians for Social Responsibility has produced a formal brochure detailing strategies for reducing childhood exposure to pesticides. Click here to view 'Pesticides and Kids'.

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