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The Connecticut Post
Bills expand schools pesticide banKEN DIXON kdixon@ctpost.com
Article Last Updated: 04/18/2007 11:04:46 PM EDT
HARTFORD Health professionals teamed up with several lawmakers Wednesday to support pending legislation that would ban toxic lawn pesticides at middle and high schools.
State law prohibits the chemicals at public and private preschools and elementary schools, but advocates say the bill should be expanded.
Dr. Jerome Silbert, executive director of The Watershed Partnership, said some chemicals may be even more toxic than tests indicate because so-called inert ingredients may react with them to create a more potent cocktail.
"The more we learn about these things the less good news and more bad news we find," Silbert said during a morning news conference in the Legislative Office Building.
"We're very concerned about what's on the ground, what goes in the ground and what goes into our water," said Rep. Lile R. Gibbons, R-Greenwich. "Pesticides are known to be detrimental to humans of all ages, and we especially need to protect our young people from potential harm," said Rep. Livvy R. Floren, R-Greenwich. "Extending the ban on pesticide use will provide a safe school grounds environment for more than 260,000 students in grades six through 12." Two related pieces of legislation would help protect children from ailments linked to pesticides, including cancers, asthma, birth defects, disruption of hormones and damage to the nervous system. Both bills are awaiting action in the House. Mary Jane Williams, of the Connecticut Nurses' Association and the Association of School Nurses of Connecticut, said banning the pesticides can help prevent disease.
"The extension of the ban on application of toxic pesticides through our middle and high schools and replacement with organic methods to maintain school fields is an important next step to protecting our children and all of those individuals who are a part of the children's education," Williams said.
She quoted federal reports that note children between 6 and 11 have "significantly higher" traces of lawn pesticides in their bodies than people in other age groups.
"We also know that children living in households where pesticides are used suffer elevated rates of leukemia, brain cancer and soft-tissue sarcoma," she said.
The growing organ systems of kids make them more vulnerable to chemicals and less able to detoxify.
One of the bills, which would prohibit lawn pesticides through high school, also contains requirements for so-called green cleaning agents in the schools.
"Every person in a school building is exposed to these adverse effects, not just janitorial staff," she said. "Identifying these toxins and changing to safer products and practices would not only reduce these adverse health effects, but also reduce exacerbation of diseases like asthma."
Information is available from the federal Environmental Protection Agency's Web page: www.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/kidpesticide.htm
Ken Dixon, who covers the Capitol, can be reached at (860) 549-4670.
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