American homeowners are applying three times more pesticides per acre to their lawns than farmers apply to agricultural crops. Plus, an EPA study found protoplasm-toxic lawn pesticides are tracked indoors and exist in your carpet and flooring for years.

Every year, homeowners in America apply 90 MILLION pounds of various pesticides to their lawns and their gardens. Between 1998 and 2001 this amount rose by 42%, and now these sort of applications make up the only growth sector for the pesticide market.

Children are more sensitive to these chemicals than adults are. Here is what the Toxic Action Center reports:

“Children’s internal organs are still developing and maturing and their enzymatic, metabolic, and immune systems provide less natural protection than those of an adult.”

An Organic Consumers article, referenced below, states: “Researchers are increasingly identifying several especially vulnerable stages of child development, including fetal and adolescent developmental windows, in which chemical exposures can permanently alter future development.”

When these pesticides get tracked into your house, onto your rugs and floors, “pesticide loads in carpet dust [may increase] as much as 400-fold.”

From Organic Bytes edition #56 on this:

QUICK FACTS ON LAWN AND GARDEN CHEMICALS

* An analysis of the most popular lawn and garden pesticides shows more than half of the products include ingredients classified by the EPA or the World Health Organization as possible carcinogens, one-third contain known or suspected endocrine disruptors, and more than a quarter contain reproductive toxins.

* Over 40% of the most commonly used lawn and garden pesticides are banned in other countries, yet U.S. homeowners annually apply 90 million pounds of these types of pesticides to gardens and lawns where children frequently play.

* Homeowners apply three times more pesticides per acre to their lawns than farmers apply to agricultural crops.

* An EPA study found that lawn pesticides are easily tracked indoors and exist in the carpet and flooring for years.

Here is the spot to check on the internet for an article about this that is but one page long…….

http://www.organicconsumers.org/school/lawns041905.cfm