The Editor,
Re. "PM won't do pesticides to battle beetles" (The Tri-City News, Jan. 16)
It's not surprising to hear Mayor Mike Clay is having second thoughts about Port Moody's ban on urban pesticides. Well-maintained public and private spaces make for happier, healthier communities and watching the European chafer beetle destroy green space in Port Moody when Health Canada has approved safe and proven solutions must be difficult.
However, it is discouraging to hear that city councillors are maintaining a position on urban pesticides that - quite frankly - is misinformed.
Urban pesticides play a significant role in protecting private and public green spaces from insects, weed and disease infestations and controlling threats to human health, like rats and mosquitoes.
Before any pesticide can be sold in Canada, it must first be approved by Health Canada. This process involves a comprehensive set of over 200 tests and a review of all scientifically credible studies that exist to ensure that the product will not cause harm to people, animals or the environment. Through this process, pesticides receive a greater breadth of scrutiny than any other regulated product in Canada.
Whether pesticides are used on lawns or crops, the same standard of health and environmental protection is required. Quite simply, Health Canada only approves products that can be used safely.
With several hundred thousand dollars of damage already done to Port Moody's landscape value, city councillors should not be turning away from urban pesticides when looking to curb the chafer beetle problem.
By all means, residents should employ multiple techniques to keep their lawns and gardens healthy, however, as Port Moody residents already know, pesticides play an important role in protecting these areas.
The reality is that pesticide policy should be driven by sound science and bans that ignore scientific evidence actually jeopardize the landscape beauty as well as the health and safety of the very communities governments say they are trying to protect.
Ted Menzies
President of CropLife Canada, which represents the plant science industry
Ottawa
