Canary Cosmetics Reading Room

3 Ways to Build Green

http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/yourhome/articles/hazards_at_home_-.html
Protecting yourself from environmental hazards can start with the home itself. The “building green” movement, best known for embracing sustainable materials and designs promoting high energy efficiency, also focuses on creating healthy dwellings, a concept used increasingly in the construction of senior housing.

“Providers are finding that young seniors are increasingly asking them how ‘green’ their projects are,” says Mark Hanson, director of sustainable services for Hoffman LLC, a planning, design and construction firm in Appleton, Wis.
Principles behind green construction include:

Materials: A variety of materials that avoid potentially hazardous chemicals are now available. Experienced green builders can help you choose what makes sense for your construction or remodeling project.

Better air circulation:  Proper venting, filtering and air circulation prevent stale air from building up in a home. In remodeling, says Hanson, fans that move air completely out of kitchens and bathrooms are important.

Maximizing natural light:  This is a plus both for energy efficiency—well-placed, properly insulated windows provide passive solar heating—and for health reasons. Getting enough natural light can help your body set its circadian rhythms.  —RK

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4 Air Fresheners
Indoor plants: Place at least two tropical houseplants per 12-by-12-foot area to absorb airborne toxicants, including formaldehyde. Air-purifying plants such as areca and lady palms, bamboo, ferns and spider plants ideally should be placed close to your bed, favorite chair or other “breathing zone.”

Air purifiers: Whole-house air-cleaning systems with good filtration do a better job than stand-alone, portable room purifiers, says John Spengler, an environmental health researcher at Harvard. For even cleaner air, he recommends locating the newer air-to-air heat exchangers—either built in or as window units—in the bedroom, living room or wherever people spend most of their time.

Open windows: Opening windows and doors for about 10 minutes each day—with the heat or air conditioning turned off—will help circulate away indoor pollutants, says Catherine Zandonella, who writes about environmental health for the Green Guide. It’s best to open all doors and windows at once for maximum cross-ventilation.

Air out new purchases: “Televisions, computers and laminate or particleboard furniture give off hundreds of chemicals, and the newer they are, the more out-gassing you get,” says Bill Wolverton, president of Wolverton Environmental Services in Picayune, Miss. “Before you bring these items inside your house, remove all wrappings and let them sit outdoors or in your garage for a few days to reduce your exposure to these vapors.” —Sid Kirchheimer
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5 Natural Pest Repellents
Here are safer alternatives to commercial pesticides:

Ants: Sprinkle cinnamon, bay leaves, cayenne pepper or baby powder in problem areas and along baseboards and windowsills.

Cockroaches: Sprinkle equal parts of baking soda and confectioners’ sugar in problem areas.

Mice: Place cotton dipped in peppermint oil near problem areas. Used kitty litter is another repellent.

Mosquitoes: Mix 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water placed on your deck or balcony or dab lavender oil on your wrists and elbows.

Flies: Small sachets of crushed mint placed around the home will discourage flies. So will a potted sweet basil plant. —Sid Kirchheimer

http://www.enterprisenews.com/archive/x489859442/Grow-green-Try-an-environmentally-friendly-approach-to-a-lush-lawn

By Pam Adams
GateHouse News Service
Posted May 19, 2008 @ 09:55 PM
PEORIA, Ill. —
When it comes to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, just say no.

Think of synthetics as your lawn on drugs, says Clark Abraham.

“The more you use, the more you need.”

Once out of rehab, however, the drug-free lawn gets by on less of everything — less fertilizer, less watering, less mowing. More importantly, the clean-and-sober lawn is safer for people and their environment, he says. Not to mention, “drug” prices, in this instance, are rising right along with the price of gas.

Abraham is one of the undoubtedly few area residents who has signed on to the SafeLawns Challenge, a national campaign to promote environmentally-friendly lawn care. But an eco-green lawn is a natural for him. He owns and operates Abraham’s Eco-Lawn Organics in Normal. He hasn’t used man-made chemicals on his own yard in 11 years.

The question is, how many others will join him, particularly in central Illinois?

That’s the challenging part for the SafeLawns Challenge, which aims to convince Americans — including homeowners, businesses, schools and other institutions — to convert one million acres of grass to organic lawn care by 2010.

“Organic lawn care is taking off on the East Coast and the West Coast,” says Paul Rosenbohm, owner of LAF Compost Inc. in rural Peoria. “They jump on the bandwagon first, we wait and let them work out the mistakes.”

Franz Hoerdemann, of Hoerdemann’s Landscaping in West Peoria, agrees. Though he tries to use as little synthetic fertilizer as possible, he suspects farmers are using more organic products than landscapers to fertilize or to control weeds and insects.

“I’m looking at it because it’s something we’re going to have to get used to,” Hoerdemann says. “But right now it’s not cost effective, even though fertilizer has gone up 40 to 60 percent because of oil prices.”

However slowly, even the traditional lawn-care industry is moving away from petrochemicals to organic products made of manure or bone meal.

The SafeLawns Challenge is sponsored by the SafeLawns Foundation, a not-for-profit based in Maine geographically and online at safelawns.org. Both are the brainchild/marketing tool for Paul Tukey’s mission. He’s a reporter-turned-landscaper who turned organic lawncare advocate after he was diagnosed with acute chemical sensitivity, brought on by an overexposure to chemicals.

Tukey, founder of a “People, Places and Plants” magazine and former host of a cable television show of the same name, is author of “The Organic Lawn Care Manual.” SafeLawns Foundation came about as a result of discussions with the publisher about how to promote the book. The foundation got off the ground just as Land O’ Lakes Purina Feed launched Bradfield Organics, a fertilizer billed as safe for people, pets and the environment.

The two have been linked ever since. For instance, Bradford Organics sponsors how-to videos on the SafeLawns Web site, and SafeLawns selected Bradford products to use on its National Mall demonstration project.

But Tukey sees the SafeLawns Challenge and other activities as a public education campaign. He’s trying to change minds and myths, lawns and laws.

Traditional lawn-maintenance programs typically involve a four-step program — pre-emergent weed control, weed killer, a summer fertilizer, and a fall weed and seed. Tukey likes to say organic lawncare is a 12-step program, beginning with mental detoxification.

The perfect lawn is a marketing myth, he says, and the idea that organically-maintained lawns are ugly is a misconception. Using eco-friendly techniques on four acres of the National Mall, for instance, is designed to dispel the misconception that going organic is going ugly.

“Changing the tolerance level for what we call weeds is part of this,” Tukey says. For instance, people loved clover in the yard until the 1960s. “Now they’ve been convinced that, somehow, it’s un-American.”

Tukey also points out that traditional lawn-care practices also contribute to pollution, from chemical run-off into water systems to noisy lawn mowers.

“With organic lawn care, the soil needs to be every bit as alive as you and me,” he says. “If you’ve been using a chemical fertilizer program for any length of time, the soil is dead. The only way you can grow plants in dead soil is to use more and more synthetic fertilizer.”

Thus, Tukey’s lawn-care intervention.

Going organic is more costly and labor-intensive initially, he explains, because it’s a process of bringing soil back to life. Composting, leaving grass clippings down, and not cutting grass too low are part of the drug-free lawn rehabilitation program.

Organic lawn care practices are more cost effective in the long run. Eventually, lawns require less fertilizer, far less watering and maintain better in drought conditions.

The SafeLawns Foundation is also among the growing number of local and national organizations pushing for laws banning or limiting the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Between the legislative push and the price of fossil fuel, the country is hitting bottom, Tukey says. “Frankly, people are going to have to change, whether they like it or not.”

Could insecticides in pet shampoos trigger autism spectrum disorders? That’s the suggestion of one of the first large-scale population-based studies to look how environmental factors and their interactions with genes contribute to the condition.

Mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were twice as likely to have reported using pet shampoos containing a class of insecticide called pyrethrins as those of healthy children, according to survey results presented Thursday at the International Meeting for Autism Research in London. The risk was greatest if the shampoo was used during the second trimester of pregnancy.

Meanwhile, another study suggests that exposure to organophosphate insecticides double the risk of developmental disorders, including autism. Organophosphates have previously been linked to Gulf War syndrome.

While many chemicals have previously been blamed for triggering autism, there have been very few rigorous studies designed to investigate the link.

More at New Scientist.

From Pesticide Action Network North America:

According to the Globe and Mail, Home Depot "will voluntarily stop selling traditional pesticides and herbicides by the end of the year and will replace these products with less environmentally harmful alternatives." The move coincides with the April 22 Earth Day announcement that Ontario will join Quebec as the second province to formally ban the use of so-called "cosmetic" pesticides on residential lawns, gardens and parks. "Now that we have Quebec and Ontario, there is huge pressure on the other provinces," said Gideon Forman, executive director of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. "The next obvious one would be British Columbia."

Comment: Wouldn’t it be nice if Home Depot did this in the USA, and our government banned pesticides, too?

Concerns raised on health risks of green grass

By Francesca Lyman
MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR

Sept. 18 — It’s one of America’s top pastimes — a great source of fresh air and exercise, not to mention stress relief. Gardening may not be so healthy, however, for the three-quarters of households that use lawn and garden chemicals. Experts explain the risks and suggest some greener tactics to start using this fall.

A GROWING NUMBER of communities, physicians and medical researchers are concerned that the overly liberal use of insecticides, herbicides and other chemicals on home lawns and gardens may be hazardous to human health.
U.S. lawns and gardens use 70 million to 75 million pounds of pest-killing ingredients annually, according to a recent issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. These substances, some of which include potential carcinogens and hormone disrupters, may present hazards to people who apply them and may leach into groundwater, reports the journal, published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Children, who may be exposed by rolling around in the grass, for instance, are especially vulnerable since they are still developing, and they absorb more of the chemicals into their bodies, pound for pound, than adults, say researchers.
“Exposures to toxic chemicals in the early years of life can increase risk of learning disabilities, behavioral problems and probably cancer and other chronic diseases in childhood and in adult life as well,” says Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Children’s Center for Health and the Environment at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.
A National Cancer Institute study found that children whose parents used store-bought home and garden pesticides are up to seven times more likely to develop childhood leukemia.
Studies have also linked pesticide exposure to breast and prostate cancer, Parkinson’s disease and immune system disorders.

BENEFITS OF PESTICIDES
The pesticide industry disputes some of these claims. “Pesticides have to be toxic to work at all, but they are not toxic to people at the levels to which people are now exposed,” says Allen James, president of the Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment, or RISE, a trade association representing manufacturers, formulators and distributors of pesticide products.
Plus, James adds, these chemical are used to protect children from other health threats: “Pesticides are used for very good reasons, to curb rats and cockroaches and other pests people are not able to eradicate in other ways.”

Critics complain that the Environmental Protection Agency has been too slow in screening hazardous chemicals that may cause cancer or disrupt hormones. “It took 30 years of people getting sick to get EPA to phase out some of these chemicals, but all of the most common (ones) still on the market still have all sorts of adverse health effects,” says Kagan Owen of the nonprofit group Beyond Pesticides. “We’re taking risks with our health and our children’s health to fight crabgrass and clover. We have to ask: Are those risks worth that benefit?”
The EPA is under mandate by Congress to re-evaluate the safety of a long list of older pesticides, a process that is far from complete, says Owen.
Just as the EPA has begun re-evaluating the older but still widely used weedkiller 2,4-D, a new study in the latest edition of Environmental Health Perspectives has raised new questions about it. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Valparaiso in Chile tested the effects of a common product containing 2,4,-D by adding it to the drinking water of laboratory mice; they found a 20 percent increase in failed pregnancies, even at doses much lower than that allowed in U.S. drinking water.

NATURAL SOLUTIONS
A growing number of people are turning to natural methods out of concern for pesticides’ unintended side effects, notes Phillip Dickey, staff scientist with the Washington Toxics Coalition.
And now is the ideal time to start implementing greener tactics, experts say. Fall is the best time to fertilize your lawn and garden plants. Taking time to do this will strengthen their roots for the cold months ahead.
“If you strengthen your lawn, it will make it through the stress of winter, and you will have less need to go after pests later,” says Gwen Stahnke, cooperative extension turf grass specialist for Washington State University in Puyallup, Wash.
Stahnke advocates learning about your lawn, even doing a soil test if necessary, and if a fertilizer is needed, using “slow release” products, so named because they release nitrogen and other nutrients over time.
“Such products,” Dickey explains, “promote slow, steady turf growth, while reducing the possibility that excess nutrients will run off and contaminate surface water.”
Other “green” approaches include:
Creating a healthy garden to stop pest problems before they start.
Identifying pests before you spray, stomp or squash. That “pest” might be a beneficial insect.
Give nature a chance to work rather than trying to eliminate pests at the first sign of damage.
Use the least toxic pest controls available, such as traps or barriers.
And for lawns, mow high and often; leave grass clippings; fertilize with a natural, organic or slow-release fertilizer; water deeply but infrequently; and improve poor lawns with aeration and overseeding.

MINIMIZING RISKS
But just how dangerous are most pesticides to use? That depends on exposure and at what level, says Jay Ellenberger, an official in the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs. “If people are reading the labels and following directions — whether they should wear eyegear or special clothing — they will be minimizing their risks to themselves to a level we think is acceptable,” he says.
However, Dickey points to a recent University of Washington study that tested children living in two Seattle metropolitan area communities for exposure to pesticides by measuring urinary metabolites and found a remarkable 97 percent exposed.

Pesticide industry representatives counter that exposures to chemicals don’t necessarily mean they’re harmful. “We’re exposed to thousands of chemicals throughout our environment, and many of them can be detected in our bodies without their doing damage,” James says.
Since 1999, Seattle has reduced its use of pesticides by at least a third, partly because of evidence that the chemicals may be harming the state’s vulnerable salmon populations, says Phil Renfrow of the city’s parks and recreation department.
But homeowners’ overuse of pesticides by far offsets the city’s reductions, Renfrow adds. “All you have to do is go down to Home Depot to see products flying off the shelves, bought by people who have little clue about the hazards contained in those cans.”

Francesca Lyman is an environmental and travel journalist and author of “Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest” (Workman, 1998).

May 15, 2002, La Crosse Tribune

By REID MAGNEY
Of the Tribune staff

A thick, weed-free lawn is the vision of outdoor perfection for many Americans.
To get that perfect emerald turf carpet, Americans will spend lots of green — more than $4 billion annually on lawn care products. And to wage war on dandelions and crabgrass, 26 million households hired lawn care services in 2000.
But is there a greater cost?
Studies by researchers in Wisconsin and Minnesota are raising questions about health and environmental problems caused by spraying and spreading chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
Government is taking notice. The U.S. Environ mental Protection Agency has recently banned home use of some common pesticides like Dursban and Diazanon, though existing stocks are still available in some stores. Canada’s highest court has upheld the right of cities to ban the use of pesticides and fertilizers on public and private land.
“We just don’t need it,’’ said Barbara Frank of La Crosse, who chairs the Sierra Club’s Midwest Regional Conservation Committee. “It’s better to live with a few weeds in a more natural lawn than to run the risk from pesticide exposure.’’
“I’m a breast cancer survivor, and I get nervous about being exposed to pesticides and herbicides,’’ Frank said.
Joe Bilskemper of Onalaska, owner of Lawn Care Specialists Inc., said proper application is critical. He said the pesticides and fertilizers used by his lawn care company and others are the same products sold retail to the public.
“People are better off hiring a professional’’ than running the risk of applying the products themselves,’’ Bilskemper said. “There’s very little risk when products are applied according to the label directions.’’
But professor Warren Porter, chairman of the Department of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin, said there is growing evidence that lawn chemical mixtures can be dangerous to human and animal health, even when used according to label directions.
Porter’s previous studies have shown that a common mix of agricultural insecticide, herbicide and fertilizer found in drinking water altered the thyroid hormones of young mice, changing their aggressive ness and suppressing their immune systems.
Porter said he will publish a study in July about “one of the most common lawn chemical mixes,’’ that looks at biological effects at ultra-low doses. Porter said he can’t identify the mixture until after the study is published but noted it is one in products commonly applied by both homeowners and professionals in this part of the country.
“The key thing that people need to understand is why it is all these pesticides molecules are biologically active,’’ Porter said. “They have a way to get through the cell wall, or any waxy surface — first your skin and then the cells that make up your body.’’
Once inside the body, Porter said, “the opportunities for effects are really enormous.’’
“If you look at the Materials Safety Data Sheets for these lawn herbicides — and this is what got me looking at lawn chemicals — they are rated as either immediate or long-term, or both, health hazards,’’ Porter said.
A 1996 study done by the EPA and the University of Minnesota has shown that children of pesticide applicators have significantly higher rates of birth defects than the general population. The study by Dr. Vincent Garry, professor and director of the University of Minnesota Laboratory of Environmental Medicine and Pathology, looked at more than 200,000 children born in Minnesota between 1989 and 1992. Porter said the study found a significantly higher birth-defect rate in regions of high pesticide usage.
The lawn care industry admits that pesticide use carries a risk.
“Homeowners should be aware that the use of pesticides does pose some risk, and their use cannot be made completely safe,’’ according to an information pamphlet supplied to consumers by the Professional Lawn Care Association of America. “Improper or inappropriate use of pesticides and other lawn care products by either the homeowner or the lawn care professional can increase the level of exposure, which in turn increases the level of risk posed to human health and the environment.’’ Mohamed B. Abou-Donia, a professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University Medical Center, said new research has shown pesticides are even more harmful when they are used in combination with other chemicals, like DEET, a mosquito repellent. The combination “impedes the body’s ability to get rid of the chemicals,’’ he said.
“If you have to use it, use the least amount that you can get by with,’’ said Abou-Donia, who recently presented papers on pesticides at a Seattle conference. “This is the first rule. The second rule is try not to combine it with other chemicals.’’

Notification list

Homeowners can choose to avoid chemicals on their yards, but what about the neighbors’ yards?
Joyce Arthur of La Crosse is one of 18 La Crosse County families that asked to be on the state’s Landscape Application Registry, so she will be notified at least 12 hours before a neighbor’s lawn gets sprayed. “I wanted to know when they would be spraying so I could stay in the house and not breathe the pesticides,’’ Arthur said.
But staying inside is no guarantee against lawn pesticide exposure, according to a 2001 study by the EPA and Battelle Memorial Institute. The study measured levels of the herbicide 2,4-D in 13 homes before and after lawn application. The herbicide, carried in by pets or homeowners, was detected inside in all the homes.
The study estimated post-application pesticide exposures to children at 10 times higher than pre-application exposures. That’s a concern, Porter said, because fetuses and children do not have defensive enzymes that adults develop to help detoxify the body.
Janet Horihan of West Salem also is on the notification registry so she can close up her house before her neighbors’ houses get sprayed. “I have respiratory problems. My eyes and throat burn,’’ she said. “I have two children at home. When they were younger, one had to go to the hospital regularly every time they sprayed.’’

Ask questions

Consumers should ask tough questions about any pesticide that a lawn service wants to spray on their property, said Stephen Tvedten, a nationally known expert on integrated pest management and the author of the book “The Bug Stops Here!’’
Integrated Pest Management — IPM for short — can have different definitions. Tom Delaney, executive vice president of the Professional Lawn Care Association of America, said IPM practices can include proper mowing, regular watering, aeration, seeding and pH balancing.
To Tvedten, IPM is finding least-poisonous methods of controlling bugs and weeds. “Everything is common sense. My mother taught me IPM when I was about 4 years old in Marsh field, Wis. She said, ’Stephen, shut the door. You’re letting in flies.’’’
Pesticides also make for an unhealthy lawn, Tvedten said. “Because of all the synthetic pesticide poisons and fertilizers, our top layer of soil is virtually dead,’’ he said. “Soil must be alive, teaming with microorganisms or the lawn and/or plants will not be healthy.
If you feel you must kill dandelions and other weeds, there are many safer and inexpensive alter natives to chemicals, Tvedten said.
“Safe alternatives actually work far better, are safer, and more economical than the poisons to begin with,’’ Tvedten said. “For every pest that you can name, I can give you a handful, or more, of alter natives on how to address the issue.’’
Tvedten suggests spraying weeds in cement cracks and along fences with vine gar, or even undiluted Coca-Cola. “Always do this on a hot, sunny day, as this will help kill the weeds,’’ he said.
“There are many, many, many solutions if you just think. You have a brain that is 200,000 times bigger than your insect pests. If you use it, you’ll win. If you use pesticides, you’ll lose.’’ To get a free copy of Stephen Tvedten’s book, “The Bug Stops Here!’’ go to http://www.thebestcontrol.com

Lawn flags

State-required white flags notify people that pesticide has been applied to a lawn in La Crosse. “People have a right to know,’’ said lawn care company owner Joe Bilskemper, who helped write the state rules on notification. “It’s caused an awareness out there, and that’s good.’’

The rules on notification

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has a program for notifying residents before a lawn care company applies pesticides to neighboring lawns, trees and shrubs.
Under the Landscape Pesticide Application Advance Notice Registry program, the company must contact a resident on the “notify’’ list at least 12 hours before applying pesticides to certain designated properties. It’s too late to get on the notification list for this year, but applications for next year can be obtained by calling (608) 224-5296 or writing to registry coordinator, DATCP, P.O. Box 8911, Madison, WI 53708-8911. A form also can be requested by e-mail at: agriculture@datcp.state.wi.us, or go to the Web site at datcp.state.wi.us/arm/agriculture/ pest-fert/pesticides/lndscp_reg.html.
The annual deadline is Feb. 1, which gives the department time to assemble the names into a booklet and distribute it to lawn care and landscaping companies.
Missed the deadline this year? Consider asking the lawn care company for notification. They’re not under legal obligation, but most companies will honor requests.

May 15, 2002, La Crosse Tribune

By REID MAGNEY
Of the Tribune staff

A thick, weed-free lawn is the vision of outdoor perfection for many Americans.
To get that perfect emerald turf carpet, Americans will spend lots of green — more than $4 billion annually on lawn care products. And to wage war on dandelions and crabgrass, 26 million households hired lawn care services in 2000.
But is there a greater cost?
Studies by researchers in Wisconsin and Minnesota are raising questions about health and environmental problems caused by spraying and spreading chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
Government is taking notice. The U.S. Environ mental Protection Agency has recently banned home use of some common pesticides like Dursban and Diazanon, though existing stocks are still available in some stores. Canada’s highest court has upheld the right of cities to ban the use of pesticides and fertilizers on public and private land.
“We just don’t need it,’’ said Barbara Frank of La Crosse, who chairs the Sierra Club’s Midwest Regional Conservation Committee. “It’s better to live with a few weeds in a more natural lawn than to run the risk from pesticide exposure.’’
“I’m a breast cancer survivor, and I get nervous about being exposed to pesticides and herbicides,’’ Frank said.
Joe Bilskemper of Onalaska, owner of Lawn Care Specialists Inc., said proper application is critical. He said the pesticides and fertilizers used by his lawn care company and others are the same products sold retail to the public.
“People are better off hiring a professional’’ than running the risk of applying the products themselves,’’ Bilskemper said. “There’s very little risk when products are applied according to the label directions.’’
But professor Warren Porter, chairman of the Department of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin, said there is growing evidence that lawn chemical mixtures can be dangerous to human and animal health, even when used according to label directions.
Porter’s previous studies have shown that a common mix of agricultural insecticide, herbicide and fertilizer found in drinking water altered the thyroid hormones of young mice, changing their aggressive ness and suppressing their immune systems.
Porter said he will publish a study in July about “one of the most common lawn chemical mixes,’’ that looks at biological effects at ultra-low doses. Porter said he can’t identify the mixture until after the study is published but noted it is one in products commonly applied by both homeowners and professionals in this part of the country.
“The key thing that people need to understand is why it is all these pesticides molecules are biologically active,’’ Porter said. “They have a way to get through the cell wall, or any waxy surface — first your skin and then the cells that make up your body.’’
Once inside the body, Porter said, “the opportunities for effects are really enormous.’’
“If you look at the Materials Safety Data Sheets for these lawn herbicides — and this is what got me looking at lawn chemicals — they are rated as either immediate or long-term, or both, health hazards,’’ Porter said.
A 1996 study done by the EPA and the University of Minnesota has shown that children of pesticide applicators have significantly higher rates of birth defects than the general population. The study by Dr. Vincent Garry, professor and director of the University of Minnesota Laboratory of Environmental Medicine and Pathology, looked at more than 200,000 children born in Minnesota between 1989 and 1992. Porter said the study found a significantly higher birth-defect rate in regions of high pesticide usage.
The lawn care industry admits that pesticide use carries a risk.
“Homeowners should be aware that the use of pesticides does pose some risk, and their use cannot be made completely safe,’’ according to an information pamphlet supplied to consumers by the Professional Lawn Care Association of America. “Improper or inappropriate use of pesticides and other lawn care products by either the homeowner or the lawn care professional can increase the level of exposure, which in turn increases the level of risk posed to human health and the environment.’’ Mohamed B. Abou-Donia, a professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University Medical Center, said new research has shown pesticides are even more harmful when they are used in combination with other chemicals, like DEET, a mosquito repellent. The combination “impedes the body’s ability to get rid of the chemicals,’’ he said.
“If you have to use it, use the least amount that you can get by with,’’ said Abou-Donia, who recently presented papers on pesticides at a Seattle conference. “This is the first rule. The second rule is try not to combine it with other chemicals.’’

Notification list

Homeowners can choose to avoid chemicals on their yards, but what about the neighbors’ yards?
Joyce Arthur of La Crosse is one of 18 La Crosse County families that asked to be on the state’s Landscape Application Registry, so she will be notified at least 12 hours before a neighbor’s lawn gets sprayed. “I wanted to know when they would be spraying so I could stay in the house and not breathe the pesticides,’’ Arthur said.
But staying inside is no guarantee against lawn pesticide exposure, according to a 2001 study by the EPA and Battelle Memorial Institute. The study measured levels of the herbicide 2,4-D in 13 homes before and after lawn application. The herbicide, carried in by pets or homeowners, was detected inside in all the homes.
The study estimated post-application pesticide exposures to children at 10 times higher than pre-application exposures. That’s a concern, Porter said, because fetuses and children do not have defensive enzymes that adults develop to help detoxify the body.
Janet Horihan of West Salem also is on the notification registry so she can close up her house before her neighbors’ houses get sprayed. “I have respiratory problems. My eyes and throat burn,’’ she said. “I have two children at home. When they were younger, one had to go to the hospital regularly every time they sprayed.’’

Ask questions

Consumers should ask tough questions about any pesticide that a lawn service wants to spray on their property, said Stephen Tvedten, a nationally known expert on integrated pest management and the author of the book “The Bug Stops Here!’’
Integrated Pest Management — IPM for short — can have different definitions. Tom Delaney, executive vice president of the Professional Lawn Care Association of America, said IPM practices can include proper mowing, regular watering, aeration, seeding and pH balancing.
To Tvedten, IPM is finding least-poisonous methods of controlling bugs and weeds. “Everything is common sense. My mother taught me IPM when I was about 4 years old in Marsh field, Wis. She said, ’Stephen, shut the door. You’re letting in flies.’’’
Pesticides also make for an unhealthy lawn, Tvedten said. “Because of all the synthetic pesticide poisons and fertilizers, our top layer of soil is virtually dead,’’ he said. “Soil must be alive, teaming with microorganisms or the lawn and/or plants will not be healthy.
If you feel you must kill dandelions and other weeds, there are many safer and inexpensive alter natives to chemicals, Tvedten said.
“Safe alternatives actually work far better, are safer, and more economical than the poisons to begin with,’’ Tvedten said. “For every pest that you can name, I can give you a handful, or more, of alter natives on how to address the issue.’’
Tvedten suggests spraying weeds in cement cracks and along fences with vine gar, or even undiluted Coca-Cola. “Always do this on a hot, sunny day, as this will help kill the weeds,’’ he said.
“There are many, many, many solutions if you just think. You have a brain that is 200,000 times bigger than your insect pests. If you use it, you’ll win. If you use pesticides, you’ll lose.’’ To get a free copy of Stephen Tvedten’s book, “The Bug Stops Here!’’ go to http://www.thebestcontrol.com

Lawn flags

State-required white flags notify people that pesticide has been applied to a lawn in La Crosse. “People have a right to know,’’ said lawn care company owner Joe Bilskemper, who helped write the state rules on notification. “It’s caused an awareness out there, and that’s good.’’

The rules on notification

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection has a program for notifying residents before a lawn care company applies pesticides to neighboring lawns, trees and shrubs.
Under the Landscape Pesticide Application Advance Notice Registry program, the company must contact a resident on the “notify’’ list at least 12 hours before applying pesticides to certain designated properties. It’s too late to get on the notification list for this year, but applications for next year can be obtained by calling (608) 224-5296 or writing to registry coordinator, DATCP, P.O. Box 8911, Madison, WI 53708-8911. A form also can be requested by e-mail at: agriculture@datcp.state.wi.us, or go to the Web site at datcp.state.wi.us/arm/agriculture/ pest-fert/pesticides/lndscp_reg.html.
The annual deadline is Feb. 1, which gives the department time to assemble the names into a booklet and distribute it to lawn care and landscaping companies.
Missed the deadline this year? Consider asking the lawn care company for notification. They’re not under legal obligation, but most companies will honor requests.

American Chemical Society News Release
ORLANDO, FL — Natural killer cells are like the Marines of our immune system; they have the capability to defend us against a lot of different threats. But researchers have uncovered a potential counter-threat to this front-line protection. Our body’s natural killer cells could be rendered irreversibly powerless to guard against invading tumors and viral onslaughts after only a brief exposure to a compound found in some agricultural pesticides and fungicides.
The findings were presented at the 223rd national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.
Triphenyltin (TPT) is a compound used in fungicides to protect pecan, potato and sugar beet crops and in pesticides to guard against Colorado potato beetles. In tests at Tennessee State University in Nashville, TN, researchers have found an apparent irreversible inhibition of natural killer cell function after as little as a one-hour exposure to TPT.
The laboratory tests were the first to ever examine TPT specifically in human natural killer cells, according to chemistry professor Margaret Whalen, Ph.D., who oversaw the work. Most other studies involved animal cell lines, she said during a telephone interview. It’s also the first time the irreversible effect has been shown, she added.
The findings were presented by one of the contributing researchers, Sharnise Wilson, a chemistry major and one of Whalen’s undergraduate students.
"The results indicate that brief exposures to TPT can cause persistent suppression of human immune system function," Whalen emphasized.
Although Whalen thinks that most of the TPT levels that agricultural workers are exposed to in the field are probably below what her group tested in the lab, "It’s hard to know what real-life levels for phenyltins are," she noted.
In the near future, Whalen, in collaboration with Bommanna Loganathan, Ph.D., of Murray State University in Kentucky, hopes to test blood samples of agricultural workers who have been exposed to TPT to see whether significant quantities of the compound can be measured in their blood.
A type of lymphocyte cell found in the immune system, natural killer cells aggressively "fight a viral infection or destroy a cancer cell before other immune system cells recognize that they are there," Whalen pointed out. "They are quite important." A one-hour exposure to TPT "causes about a 50 percent to 60 percent loss of the tumor killing function of the natural killer cell," according to Whalen.
Even after the TPT is removed, the natural killer cells are unable to regain their strength, as evidenced by tests by Whalen’s group with human leukemia cells.
"Despite the fact that the compound is no longer there, they are still unable to kill the leukemia cell," Whalen said.
Whalen believes the findings "could explain to some extent why compounds like this seem to increase cancer risks." The researchers are currently investigating whether interleukin-2 — a protein produced by other immune system cells — might help reverse the inhibitory effect of TPT. "It looks like it can to some extent," according to Whalen, but she quickly points out that the study is still ongoing and there is no conclusive data.
The research is primarily funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) program.

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