Why We Need Provincial Legislation Banning the Sale and Use of Pesticides: Backgrounder

Major Donor

Leonard Schein
President,
Festival Cinemas

"I'm very impressed with the difficult work that Toxic Free Canada does. I support Toxic Free Canada because I know their knowledge and hard work will result in great strides in protecting the health and environment of the people of BC and Canada."

The literature

Testing standards for pesticides were geared to 150-lb adult males, not to the "unique vulnerabilities" of developing fetuses, infants and teens. Low-dose exposure to toxins in cosmetic pesticides could have chronic and disabling effects on developing fetuses, babies and children.
— National Academy of Sciences, 1993, "Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children."

Millions of children may have been intellectually and developmentally affected by low dose exposure to pesticides. Enzymes found in many organophosphate pesticides disrupt the flow between synapses and can harm children. Exposures to chemicals in some pesticides may be linked to lowered intelligence, behavioural disorders, autism, ADHD, and asthma.
— Harvard School of Public Health and Mount Sinai School of Medicine for Children's Health and the Environment.

Neurotoxic chemicals in pesticides can produce changes in brain structure and functioning when exposures occur on a specific day of development.
— Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, "In Harm's Way."

Early exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals commonly found in pesticides can lead to later infertility/sterility, testicular cancer, and premature puberty.
— Environmental Protection Act, studies

One third of the human food supply is dependent on pollination by bees, but the world has lost a third of its bees over the past few years, in part because pesticides become so concentrated in the honeycomb, they kill bees in their hives.
— Mark Winston, professor of apiculture, Simon Fraser University.

Women exposed to pesticides as children are twice as likely to have breast cancer later.
— "State of Evidence Report on Breast Cancer" and studies by Dr. Jim Brophy et al. in New York Academy of Sciences.

Pre-natal (in vitrio) exposures to some chemicals in fungicides can alter genes and be the trigger for breast or testicular cancer three generations later.
— Dr. Michael Skinner in the journal Endocrinology.

Pesticides cannot be considered safe at any level of exposure, especially for children and pregnant women.
— Ontario College of Family Physicians.

Pesticide exposure can affect the reproductivity, survival behavior and sexual characteristics and weaken the immune systems of salmon.
— "Diminishing Returns: Salmon Decline and Pesticides."

Communities that passed a by-law and supported it with education were successful in reducing the use of pesticides by a high degree (51-90%). With education programs alone the reduction rate was 10-24%. Pesticide-ban by-laws work like watering bans and noise bylaws; they are complaint-driven and provide citizens with a positive enforcement tool to protect them from being exposed to unwanted harms.
— Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention, The impact of by-laws and public education programs on reducing the cosmetic/non essential, residential use of pesticides: A best practices review.

Lawncare companies using pesticides and herbicides can make the transition to organic lawncare with relative ease. Many companies, golf courses, municipalities and school boards can reduce operating costs by cutting their pesticide use.
— Studies by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

"Also important is the potential cancer burden from exposure to hundreds of probable and possible human carcinogens that have been identified and from thousands of new chemicals that have not been tested for their cancer potential. Little is known about risks from combinations of exposures at levels found in the environment or from exposures during critical time windows of development or in susceptible populations. Cancers may have multiple causes, so that environmental factors may contribute to cancers that are attributed to occupational or lifestyle factors. The known interactions between radon and smoking or between asbestos and smoking support the idea that individual cancer may have multiple causes. Finally, it is important to remember that environmental pollution is not only a cancer problem. Much environmental pollution can be prevented, and reducing environmental pollution can contribute to reductions in diseases other than cancer and to increases in aesthetics and in the overall quality of life."
— "Statement on the Environment," from the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer's World Cancer Report 2008. Available at http://www.iarc.fr/en/publications/pdfs-online/wcr/