Canada Supreme Court allows ban on lawn pesticides 

In June 2001 the Canadian supreme court upheld the decision of the Hudson local authority in Montreal to ban the use of residential lawn care pesticides under local bylaw legislation.

Two Quebec lawn care companies opposed the ban on the grounds that it was wrong for Hudson to block the use of chemicals that had been approved by the federal and provincial authorities(1). 
    The court came to a unanimous decision to uphold the ban stating 'our common future, that of every Canadian community, depends on a healthy environment'. The court further added that 'based on the distinction between essential and non-essential uses of pesticides, it is reasonable to conclude that the town bylaw's purpose is to minimize the use of allegedly harmful pesticides in order to promote the health of its inhabitants'.
    Hudson is among 36 other Quebec towns who, along with Halifax, Nova Scotia, enacted similar bans for non-essential pesticide use from 1991 onwards.
    The restriction of non-essential use pesticide products for purposes such as lawn care treatments is being taken up by many other countries including parts of the US and Europe. The National Chemicals Inspectorate in Sweden is proposing to limit the use of chemical herbicides in homes and gardens. The Inspectorate is concerned about the lack of knowledge surrounding water contamination from the increased use of domestic herbicides. Products under scrutiny include those containing glyphosate - the use of which has increased from a few hundred kilos at the end of the 1980s to more than 10 tonnes in 1999. The proposal is considered to be a contribution towards achieving one of the goals set by the Committee on Environmental Objectives, being 'A non-toxic environment'(2).
    With regard to inert ingredients the Canadian Health Minister, Allan Rock, has called for the disclosure of all toxic and allergy-related ingredients used in pesticide products. The Canadian Crop Protection Institute (CPI) does not believe that the listing of inert ingredients on product labels is in the best interests of consumers. The CPI want the label to display usage instructions with a full list of ingredients available on a separate data sheet available on request(3). 

1. Angela Rickman, Sierra Club of Canada (www.sierraclub.ca/national); Reuters,Canada Supreme Court Allows Ban on Lawn Pesticides, June 28, 2001; Globe and Mail The tools to keep pesticides in check, June 29, 2001.
2. Training required for using herbicides in home gardens, KEMI press release, www.kemi.se/aktuellt/pressmedd/2000/200622_eng.htm
3. Inert ingredients disclosure in Canada, Agrow, No 380, July 13th, 2001, p17.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 53, September 2001, page 19]