Farmers will be allowed to spray their crops if the Manitoba government bans the use of cosmetic “chemical” pesticides. But farmers will still suffer, say CropLife Canada and the Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP). And so will homeowners.
Last week Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh confirmed this spring the Manitoba government will consult the public on prohibiting pesticide applications at residential, municipal, institutional, and recreational venues. Regulations will likely be phased in starting next year.
“Where the use is for non-essential lawn applications, the risks that have been red flagged by many organizations and scientists and doctors, really compel us to look to see if there are precautions that should be taken,” Mackintosh said.
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“It’s about being cautious and looking to see if there are reasonable ways to reduce risks of harm to the environment.”
KAP opposes a ban claiming the ban is not “science-based” and therefore politically motivated, said president Doug Chorney.
Only pesticides found to be safe by Health Canada’s Pest Management Review Agency (PMRA), are allowed to be used in Canada, said Pierre Petelle, vice-president of chemistry at CropLife Canada, which represents pesticide makers.
“If this was truly a health issue why are they targeting four or five per cent of the pesticide used in Canada? What about the other 95 per cent?”
Health Canada has 350 scientists assessing pesticide safety. “What does the provincial government know about these products that Health Canada doesn’t know? The answer is nothing, but the public doesn’t know that,” Petelle said.
Research threatened
Citizens will wrongly conclude if pesticides aren’t safe on their lawns they aren’t safe on food, Petelle said. A ban threatens to undermine future investment in crops and pesticides, he said. “When these global companies are looking at their research dollars and investments Canada has become frankly a bit of a question mark.”
If noxious weeds such as dandelions are not controlled in urban and recreational areas they will spread to farmers’ fields, warned Chorney, who grows pedigreed timothy seed.
“It may be counterproductive to have a complete ban,” he said. “All the hayfields that can’t be sprayed would be very contaminated.”
One alternative is to restrict lawn pesticide applications to licensed applicators, Chorney said.
The Association of Manitoba Municipalities passed a resolution last fall in opposition to a ban.
“Any time you take a tool out of our tool box of things we can use against our battle or fight with invasive species and noxious weeds, it really serves to tie our hands,” said John Johnston, president of the Manitoba Weed Supervisors Association.
Last April the Manitoba Round Table for Sustainable Development recommended a full ban “on the sale and use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes,” including “chemical insecticides, herbicides and fungicides for residential, municipal, institutional, and recreational facilities, near water and all urban and rural areas.”
Response questioned
Its report says the Ontario College of Family Physicians found a link between lawn and garden pesticides and health problems, including cancer. According to Petelle, the round table report is flawed because it doesn’t include Health Canada’s response.
Health Canada casts doubt on the veracity of the Ontario College of Family Physicians’ findings.
“This report examined a small group of epidemiology studies, and reported potential associations between pesticides and certain cancers,” Health Canada states on its website. “The wider scientific community raised significant concerns with respect to how this literature study was conducted because it did not consider all of the relevant epidemiological evidence.”
In addition to epidemiological reviews Health Canada also does toxicological studies to assess pesticide safety.
Most other provinces have restricted cosmetic pesticide use, Mackintosh said. While the Manitoba government will look to other jurisdictions for “lessons learned,” the minister wants a “made in Manitoba” solution, he said.
While the focus is on lawn pesticides, those used on garden and trees, will be scrutinized too. Mackintosh said it’s possible products used in vegetable gardens might be exempt. There’s a good chance the ban won’t apply to golf courses either.
Agriculture and forestry will be exempt, he stressed, adding that there are non-chemical ways to control lawn weeds and they will be promoted.
“We’ll be hearing from Manitobans, including KAP, so that we can guard against any unintended consequences,” Mackintosh said.
“We’d like to move in that direction (of banning cosmetic pesticides),” he said. “The question is how do we best move in that direction.”
With files from Lorraine Stevenson.
