Lawn Pesticide Awareness Day

Today, May 6 has been deemed Lawn Pesticide Awareness Day. You are probably wondering why you should care about this but if you or your children spend any time outdoors you are coming in contact with these chemicals. Spring hitting full swing and weeds are starting to pop up all over the place. Will you find natural alternatives to maintain your lawn?

Today more than 80 international organizations have gotten together with a proclamation to honor the woman credited with starting international movement. Members of the North American health, environmental, landscape and farming community, have proclaimed Friday, May 6, 2011 as Lawn Pesticide Awareness Day in honor of Dr. June Irwin’s leading role in passage of North America’s lawn first pesticide ban on May 6, 1991.

There are so many studies on what the possible side effects of using pesticides has on our family. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences found that children exposed to herbicides and pesticides in their first year of life were at a higher risk of asthma than never-exposed children. Another reported study noted that it is possible that pesticides may cause kidney and liver damage not just to humans but to pets also.

Ever wonder what causes you to smell like “outside” after just being there for a few minutes. All indicators point to pesticides and chemicals having to do with why our body creates an odor. We recently went to Disney World and it occurred to me of all the times we have been there we never get that “outside smell” even though we spend the whole day outside. I looked around on the net and found that they use botanic sprays to try to get rid of bugs and that they have reduced pesticide use by 70 percent.