Treating school fields with chemicals outrageous
I am outraged to learn that the grounds of Cowichan Valley schools are being treated with chemicals.
Our children’s systems are vulnerable, and pesticides can compromise their health, including the immune system, respiratory system and endocrine system (which regulate sexual reproduction later in life). These chemicals build up in the system and can affect many children’s ability to learn and regulate emotion.
Choosing to spread chemicals on a school yard also impacts other vulnerable people in our community, who are compromised when the chemicals become vaporized and are carried on the air.
Long-term pesticide exposure has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, asthma, depression and anxiety, cancer, including leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and ADHD.
And that is to say nothing of the impact on local wildlife and important bacteria that all support the health of our environment, which, as we all know, is now seriously ill. Rains wash these chemicals into the groundwater, rivers and oceans, combining with all the other chemicals we send down our drains.
The chemicals in pesticides and herbicides persist in the soil, water and air long after your staff apply them to a school yard. So the decision to spread these chemicals comes with long-term, long-ranging consequences to people and things that were never given the opportunity to provide consent.
And for what? Are weeds such an awful reality for the children of this community? I doubt the impact of the weeds could possibly compare to that of the chemicals used to prevent their spread.
“Slipping hazard?” Just cut the fields short. Or include the children in maintaining the grounds (this was a job at my elementary school that I loved) and help them cultivate a sense of stewardship and pride in place. Or create jobs for those who are unskilled in our community to pull up the weeds.
Get creative.
Ultimately, I’d like to call on the CVRD to follow the example of the City of Vancouver and ban cosmetic pesticides for the public good. I believe I’m not alone in valuing health and wellness over monoculture grass fields.
Hilary Henegar
Duncan