City banning pesticides
Few exceptions. Virtually all lawns affected by proposed bylaw
MICHELLE LALONDE
The Gazette
Friday, February 21, 2003
CREDIT: ALLEN MCINNIS, THE GAZETTE
Rohini Peris suffers from multiple chemical sensitivity, a chronic condition triggered, her doctors believe, by exposure to Lindane, a pesticide used to control spiders. Montreal is proposing a bylaw that would ban pesticide use outdoors on virtually all private or public property, with a few exceptions.
Activists applauded the city of Montreal's proposed ban on pesticides yesterday but warned that the devil is in the details.
The proposed bylaw would ban pesticide use outdoors on virtually all private or public property, with a few limited exceptions. Covered under the ban would be any use by homeowners of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides.
Permits would be required when the city deems pesticide use justified, and homeowners or companies who defy the ban would be subject to fines.
"We're doing this to protect the health and well-being of people ... whether they live in the north, south, east or west end," said Alan DeSousa, executive committee member responsible for sustainable development.
Only one former suburb on the island of Montreal, Baie d'Urfé, has a full pesticide ban in effect. About a dozen others have restrictions on how and when pesticides can be used.
Those bylaws will continue to apply until the city passes a bylaw.
That could take some time, however, because DeSousa has called for "very broad consultation" on the draft bylaw.
Mayor Gérald Tremblay has promised to have a pesticide bylaw in effect by this spring, but DeSousa said yesterday he would not want to prejudice public consultations by giving too short a deadline.
He said the issue is controversial, so he wants to take time to hear all sides out.
He said the bylaw will set a minimum standard across the island, but if it is adopted, boroughs can vote to go farther, and remove exceptions or tighten conditions under which pesticides can be used.
"We've kept it pretty simple; the basic principle is that the use of pesticides is not allowed on the island of Montreal with seven exceptions," he said.
Pesticide use would be permitted:
In swimming pools and decorative ponds.
To manage golf courses, bowling greens and on property used for agricultural or horticultural purposes.
At the Insectarium, Biodome and Botanical Garden.
Within five metres of food storage depots to control vermin.
To control spiders and ants in doorways, windows and around the base of buildings.
To control infestations.
In the latter three cases, homeowners or lawn care companies would have to request and pay for a special permit from the city, and a city employee may be sent to assess whether pesticide use is necessary.
Proposed fines for flouting the bylaw would be up to $2,000 for homeowners and up to $4,000 for companies.
Michel Gaudet, vice-president of the Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, said the draft bylaw is stronger than most existing bylaws on the island but not as strong as those in Baie d'Urfé (which has a full ban), Westmount, Île Bizard or Town of Mount Royal.
"Basically, it's a good bylaw," Gaudet said.
His concerns are with the exceptions and with the fact that the city doesn't seem to be moving fast enough to get the ban in effect for the coming spring.
Spiders and ants can be managed without resorting to pesticides, for example, and the bylaw should specify they can only be used after other methods have failed, he said.
The bylaw allows for no exceptions in "sensitive" zones, such as day-care yards, schoolyards, playgrounds in city parks, and the grounds of hospitals, seniors' residences and places of worship.
Gaudet said not just playground areas but the entirety of city parks should be covered by the bylaw.
Gaudet's wife, Rohini Peris, suffers from multiple chemical sensitivity, a chronic condition triggered, her doctors believe, by exposure to Lindane, a pesticide used to control spiders. For people like Peris, a pesticide ban cannot be enacted soon enough.
"I was poisoned by pesticides," she said.
"I have developed a whole lot of allergies, to the point where it is hard to leave the house without a mask."
Cases like Peris's are relatively rare; an estimated one per cent of the population suffers from some sensitivity to chemicals. But research has found links between pesticide exposure and various health problems, particularly among young children, and people with respiratory problems.
The province has promised to enact a pesticide code, which will control the sale and storage of these products, early this year.
The federal government passed a Pest Control Products Act in December, which tightened rules for product approval and called for a reassessment of older pesticides.