TORONTO, CANADA — The toughest cosmetic pesticide ban in North America takes effect Earth Day, April 22. Ontario Province, with an estimated 13 million people, the most populous province in Canada, is banning the sale and use of about 250 pesticides and ingredients, including 2,4-D.
The ban, similar to one passed in neighboring Quebec Province several years ago, is stronger than municipal bans like Toronto’s because it covers the sale, not just the use of cosmetic pesticides, and there are almost no exemptions.
Some of the exceptions to the ban allowed by the province include:
• public health and safety (including the protection of public works
structures)
• golf courses
• specialty turf
• specified sports fields
• arboriculture
• to protect natural resources (if certain conditions are met)
• for agriculture, forestry, research and scientific purposes
• controlling wasps or mosquitoes that can transmit West Nile Virus
• killing plants that are poisonous to the touch, such as poison ivy and giant hogweed.
• to protect the health of pets (e.g. to control fleas)
• to control indoor pests or pests that can cause structural damage to the home.
The province will allow for the use of “biopesticides,” which means microorganisms that can control pests and low-risk pesticides.
If you hire a professional to look after your lawn, that person is required to post a green notice sign to notify your neighbors that biopesticides or lower risk pesticides are in use, according to the new law.
Meanwhile, Democrat MP Pat Martin from Winnipeg recently introduced a private member bill in the House of Commons calling for a national ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides on lawns, gardens and in parks, effective Earth Day 2010. Martin’s action is being seen mostly as a political or symbolic gesture as private member’s bills are rarely passed.
