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Essay on Green Healthy Lawns and Lots of Toxic Chemicals

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Spring brings many things. A host of these are very desirable, especially for those of us who have been cooped up in our homes for the past several months. How many of us have feverishly wished for a favorable weather forecast so that we can plant flowers, ride bikes, walk dogs, orchestrate lawns, and listen to chirping birds? Yet, spring also brings us a medley of a different sort-a toxic soup of chemicals. Much of this soup isn't thrust upon us from the outside; disturbingly, we choose to expose ourselves, our children, our neighbors, and our pets to these harmful chemicals. In 2013, Americans spent over $700,000,000 on pesticides (cumulatively weighing over sixty-five million pounds) for use on their lawns alone (1). One would think …show more content…

You see, most of the chemicals that we use on our lawns and gardens are neurotoxins, endocrine disrupters, immune inhibitors, teratogens, or carcinogens-in other words, they interfere with our brains, our hormone and antibody production, and/or cause birth defects or cancer. Shockingly, many of them haven't even been tested to determine exactly what impact they do have on us. According to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), "most pesticides have not been adequately tested to determine their effects on people or the environment" (2). How is this possible? Simply put, when it comes to thousands of chemicals, the U.S. government largely puts the onus on us (the citizens) to show that they are too dangerous rather than asking companies that manufacture them to show that they are safe. In the area of pesticide production, chemicals do not need to (and therefore generally don't) undergo a battery of safety tests. Unfortunately, an increasing body of evidence suggests that these chemicals would fail such tests.

We should be suspicious of the chemicals recommended for lawns and gardens for three reasons. First, key elements of the chemical industry have violated public trust in the past. Second, many chemicals that were once considered "safe" have been subsequently been banned or restricted in use. And third, as a general principle we should avoid introducing toxic

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