Toxic Green
I grew up spreading herbicides and pesticides on my family’s lawn. My parents’ modest yard was my responsibility and I lovingly achieved a lush green by recklessly dumping some of the most toxic chemicals modern science has brought to market.
Even though Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring before I was born, none of us realized that her work on DDT was applicable to our parents’ bit of green. When our spreader was out of commission, I threw herbicides and pesticides on our lawn by hand, and decades later can recall the chemicals’ slightly sweet smell. I never even wore gloves. According to the EPA, Environment and Human Health, Inc. (EHHI.org) and the radicals at Duke University, homeowners spread 10 times the amount of chemicals and fertilizers per acre of lawn than farmer’s spray on their fields. We love our monochromatic lawns and companies like our lawn supply buying habits.
I grew up on Long Island where most of the four million residents rely on well water. In the 1970’s I first read reports of nutrient run-off from lawns contaminating the island’s well water. Soon after those initial findings came alarming reports of drinking water contamination from herbicides and pesticides. Since we’ve known for over forty years that our love affair with monoculture lawns is threatening our water supply, you’d think something would be happening by now.
Sadly nearly nothing has been done to stem the tide of pollution. The EPA hasn’t even begun investigating many chemicals commonly used in the USA that have already been banned in Europe for years because of threats to drinking water. Over 13,000 chemicals, many of them pesticides and herbicides, are registered for use in New York. Over 95 percent have not been adequately tested, or tested at all.
Without thinking about the consequences, we pour these maybe/probably harmful products into our bit of the earth. This behavior creates patches of green so toxic that nothing can survive but the grass itself. Then we encourage our kiddies and pets to roll around in it. The sad thing is, lawns are merely a fashion statement announcing a family’s economic achievement. The greener the lawn the higher the station. Without our fully understanding it, lawn’s mimic almost every fashion statement. Just like wearing Prada shoes with uncomfortably high heels when a nearly identical but more sensible pair from Macy’s would suffice, folks will suffer a bit to look good.
Of the 32 pesticides most commonly used by lawn care companies in the USA, 13 were banned in other countries, 17 are known as real or potential carcinogens, and every one of them poses a threat to drinking water, non-targeted insects (think about the devastation to bees in recent years) and other areas of the environment. Our yard’s fashion statement just might give someone we know cancer.
There are many benefits to not using chemicals on the lawn. Since I don’t use herbicides, my lawn has so much clover I can hear the bees buzzing from the house, and in early May my lawn sports broad patches of Ajuca’s pale purple flowers. When the ajuca are blooming it’s as if I have a lawn and a flower garden rolled into one. I think that’s a very pretty fashion statement.