Lawnmowers & Supply

Perfect Lawns, is it worth it?

Have you ever been driving down the road with the windows open
going past a golf course or a field and then you get a strange
smell? A chemical type of odor? Or go walking in the country and
notice a large area, usually a field, all brown with dead grass.
And next to it, alive green grasses and shrubs? Chances are you
smell a herbicide being used or you are seeing what it can do to
vegetation.

Then you start to wonder. Are those chemicals getting into the
water table? Is wildlife eating the “treated” vegetation and
insects tainted with the chemicals? Or maybe we are taking in
the toxins and not even realizing it. It could possibly be in
the foods we eat, the air we are breathing everyday or the water
that we are drinking.

DDT is a colorless contact insecticide that is very toxic. It
became banned in the early 1970′s. Gaylord Nelson, a great
environmentalist while in office in the state of Wisconsin
diliengtly worked to get DDT banned in Wisconsin.

DDT even though restricted is still used in Mexico to control
malaria. The National Institute of Public Health of Cuernavaca,
Morelos, Mexico concluded from a study that the use of DDT has
been linked to breast cancer in Mexico. In another study done by
the University of Michigan, it was found that chemical factory
workers that made DDT also had a high risk of pancreatic cancer
from the overexposure of DDT. Unfortunately, DDT is still being
manufactured and used in tropical areas for malaria control.

Below are some of the herbicides used today. This is not a
complete listing of all of the herbicides on the market. The
short term and long term side effects is based that the Maximum
Contaminant Level (MCL) goes over a certain marker for parts per
billion (ppb) in the water. For example Simazine is 4 ppb or 4
parts per billion in drinking water.

Simazine: Common Trade names: Herbazine, Herbex, Surflan General
Uses: Corn Crops, Christmas Trees Amount Used Annually: 4.8
billion pounds estimated in 1985 Short Term health Effects:
weight loss, changes in blood Long Term Health Effects: tremors,
damage to testes, kidneys, liver, thyroid, cancer Ground Water
Implications: It may leach to ground water. It can last from a
few months to years. (EPA Consumer Fact Sheet)

Picloram: Common Trade names: Agent White, Tordon General Uses:
Control annual weeds Amount Used Annually: 300,000 pounds
estimated in 1982 Short Term health Effects: weight loss, damage
to the nervous system Long Term Health Effects: liver damage
Ground Water Implications: It may leach to ground water. It can
last from a few months to years (EPA Consumer Fact Sheet)

Glyphosate: Common Trade names: Roundup, Sonic, Rodeo,
Tumbleweed, General Uses: Used on many food crops and roadsides
Amount Used Annually: 18.7 million pounds recently Short Term
health Effects: congestion of the lungs, increases breathing
rate Long Term Health Effects: kidney damage, reproductive
effects Ground Water Implications: It strongly adheres to the
soil with little potential for leaching to ground water. (EPA
Consumer Fact Sheet)

Endothall: Common Trade names:Accelerate, Endothall Turf
Herbicide, Herbicide 273, General Uses: Used on many food crops
and control aquatic weeds Amount Used Annually: 1.5 million
pounds in 1982 Short Term health Effects: depressed breathing
and increase heart rate Long Term Health Effects: increase size
of some organs. Ground Water Implications: It can leach through
the soil into the ground water. (EPA Consumer Fact Sheet)

Dinoseb: Common Trade names:Dow Selective Weed Killer, Hel-fire,
Caldon, Knox-weed, Premerge, General Uses: used for cereal crops
Amount Used Annually: 6.2 million pounds in 1982 Short Term
health Effects: sweating, mood swings, headache Long Term Health
Effects: decreased body and thyroid weight, degeneration of
testes,. Ground Water Implications: It can leach through the
soil into the ground water. Degrades very slowly. (EPA Consumer
Fact Sheet)

Atrazine: Common Trade names:Aatex, Candex, Atred, Cyazin,
Griffex Primatol, General Uses: used for corn and soybean crops
Amount Used Annually: No figures are known, 2nd highest
herbicide used Short Term health Effects: congestion of the
heart, lungs, and kidneys, low blood pressure, muscle spasms,
weight loss, damage to adrenal glands Long Term Health Effects:
weight loss, cardiovascular damage, retinal and muscle
degeneration, and cancer Ground Water Implications: It can leach
through the soil into the ground water. Degrades very slowly.
Very powerful herbicide. (EPA Consumer Fact Sheet)

Taking in consideration that municipalities have their water
tested on a regular basis, this does not take into account the
urban and rural areas with its own private wells. Generally that
is where a lot of herbicide is used for crops. Also in the city
locations one has to take in account the air you breathe.

About the Author: Kevin Doberstein enjoys wildlife and nature
while hiking in the Wisconsin great outdoors. He is also the
owner of Nature Boy Natural Images This web site displays outdoor
wildlife and nature photography. He also has the Wisconsin Recreation Outdoors and Wildlife blog The
Wisconsin Outdoor Recreation and Wildlife Blog is for promoting
and protecting nature and wildlife resources in the state of
Wisconsin.

If you cite this article, use this description for reference:

Doberstein, Kevin 2005, Perfect Lawns, Is it Worth It? The
Dangers of Herbicides. Nature Boy Natural Images

Resources:

University of Michigan School of Public Health, Ann Arbor
48109-2029. National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca,
Morelos, Mexico. The Bioremediation and Phytoremediation of
Pesticide- contaminated Sites Prepared by Chris Frazar National
Network of Environmental Studies (NNEMS) EPA Consumer Fact Sheet

About the Author

Kevin Doberstein enjoys wildlife and nature while hiking in the
Wisconsin great outdoors. He is also the owner of
Nature Boy Natural
Images
This web site displays outdoor wildlife and nature
photography. The Wisconsin Recreation Outdoors and Wildlife blog

Phish – 04.04.98 – Lawn Boy