"... Paul Tukey had a thriving lawn-care business in Maine. He used pesticides and chemical fertilizers on the lawns of his 800 customers and has never made as much money as he did then. But in 1994, after developing blurry vision, nosebleeds and cold sweats, he was diagnosed with acute pesticide poisoning. Now he's running Safelawns.org, a nonprofit that teaches organic lawn care to a growing audience of consumers who want a better, safer way to treat their lawns and gardens..."
But to casually toss of Paul Tukey's problems with the buzz phrase "acute pesticide poisoning" misses the point. America is conditioned to dump tons, and tons, and tons of this horrible in-organic matter onto our lawns in the hopes that their lawns look like the air brushed pictures in Better Homes and Gardens. And, tons, and tons, and tons of that inundated chemical nightmare wash right off our lawns and right into our water system, estuaries and food supply. This is an enormous problem and a serious health risk. Read what one man working a few lawns a week went through "blurry vision, nosebleeds and cold sweats" and multiply that nationwide.
We are polluting ourselves when we are polluting our environment and the idea that "it's just my lawn" and is just my business is not accurate. "What difference does one person make" - well that's just unaware thinking. I have news for everyone - WE ALL MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE and it's a huge difference when everyone thinks and acts the same.
Needless to say I've gone organic on my lawn because I can't stand the idea that I as an individual am polluting the water ways that I love, the creatures that I adore, and the food that I cherish and put back into my system (my body).
Nothing is separate it is all connected from the cigarette butts tossed out of windows, to the tailpipes of our cars, to the pesticides on our lawns. It's all just one big system we are a part of, and it all comes back home to roost in the air we breath, the water we drink and the food we eat. Each one of us has to care and care a lot to right this ship and change the perception that we stand apart from nature and the Earth somehow and realize fully how totally and completely integrated we in fact are. What each of us does matters a lot to everything.
More info on what you can do - here!
2 comments:
Paul,
I ordered your book and can't wait to read it.
Thank you for this post. Being a cancer prevention writer and speaker that has studied pesticides since residency I was drawn to your site. I hope this helps raise awareness.
I look around my neighborhood, seeing loving parents covering their lawns with chemicals. Do they not realise that many credible studies have shown that being exposed to home and lawn chemicals raises a childs risk of leukemia up to seven-fold?
In our book, we bring up a study on dogs. Dogs exposed to chemical lawn weed killers are three times more likely to develop lymphomas. What about our children? They were not studied because it is felt that dogs have alot more exposure to lawns.... As a mother of four boys, I strongly disagree.
As an author I thought you might enjoy the quote we use in our section on lawn pesticides. "Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them" -Eeyore, from A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh"
Thank you, and I look forward to a good read!
Lynne Eldridge M.D.
Author, "Avoiding Cancer One Day At A Time"
http://www.avoidcancernow.com
Awesome!
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