Four True Tales - Which Show Our Environment's Impact on Our Health

1. It was a balmy April spring evening. The light was still bright. I was walking near a small neighborhood playground. I saw there, two fathers, each absorbed in the play of his toddler son. As I approached them, I glanced down and saw a small white sign on the grass at the edge of the playground.

PESTICIDE APPLICATION--CAUTION POISON
DO NOT WALK ON WHEN WET

It was freshly applied that day. The fathers were too engrossed in interacting with their sons to notice the warning. If they saw the sign would they have left? Or weren't they even aware of the possible connection between the chemicals applied and the health of their sons?

PESTICIDE POISON ON THE PLAYGROUND?

The pesticide company should have put up a large, brightly colored WARNING FLAG and the CITY COUNCIL SHOULD CONSIDER BANNING PESTICIDE USE FROM ALL CITY PLAYGROUNDS AND PARKS.


2. A few years ago I was walking on the sidewalk around the back of an elementary school in the neighborhood next to mine. I stopped to watch two young girls, fascinated by their carefree rolling in the grass. They were teasing and laughing. As I turned the corner to the front of the school, the good feeling turned sour:

PESTICIDE APPLICATION
KEEP OFF UNTIL DRY

What was the foul up in communication? Did the school INFORM the students about keeping off the grass? The girls either didn't know, didn't PAY ATTENTION when told, weren't IMPRESSED WITH THE IMPORTANCE of what they were told, were ABSENT that day, or couldn't READ.

When school administrators and parents allow toxins so close to young people everything has to be WEIGHED VERY CAREFULLY.

WHOSE GROWTH IS TO BE VALUED MORE...
THAT OF CHILDREN OR GRASS?


3. A vibrant senior who takes pride in his lawn lives one block from me. He regularly uses a chemical lawn service to insure no weeds. Directly across the street from his yard lives a gracious woman who has serious health concerns.
One day the lawn service applicator came, and seeing the man's mail box on the woman's side of the street, assume is was on his property, and SPRAYED HER YARD INSTEAD. The service man DID NOT LEAVE A SIGN that spraying had been done nor told her about his mistake.
When the young men from the grass cutting service came, they "sniffed out the spray odor" and REFUSED TO CUT HER GRASS FOR AT LEAST TWO DAYS. This woman could have unknowingly tracked pesticide spray into her home. People frequently walk their dogs on the shoulder of both lawns as there is no sidewalk. If the grass cutters hadn't been alert, they might have been exposed to the fresh spray.

ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES...OFTEN UNFORESEEN,
OFTEN AFFECTING OUR HEALTH FOR GOOD OR ILL.


4. Another homeowner in the neighborhood, who had been adversely affected by chemical sprays, asked the pesticide company to call her before each new application at homes adjacent to her home. She was concerned about the SPRAY DRIFT PROPELLED BY THE WIND. They did call before several visits, but after one traumatic episode they stopped the warning calls.
This is what happened: A truck pulled up to the house next door and a woman company trainer and a young man trainee got out with their equipment. The trainer urged him to spray faster. He ran back and forth spraying not directly into the ground but laterally, up into the air, and across the ground.
When he saw the homeowner staring in disbelief, he started shouting, "Go back, go inside." A carpenter working in the homeowner's garage was a witness. THIS SHOWS HOW CHEMICAL SPRAY CAN DRIFT UNINTENTIONALLY BEYOND A LOT LINE.

WHAT MAY SEEMINGLY BE GOOD FOR ONE HOUSEHOLD
MAY BE TO THE DETRIMENT OF ANOTHER.