In my old, pre-mom job as an Agrologist, I spent a considerable amount of time talking to farmers about reducing and eventually eliminating their use of pesticides because of the harm to the environment and to their animals. 3 years ago, 3 horses died from respiratory distress likely caused from pesticide exposure from a product used to kill broad leaf weeds in a neighbouring pasture. I always found in my lectures that the environmental argument never got me far but harm to their animals struck a chord. I find this story unfortunate in that it takes the deaths of children for us to understand the gravity of using these chemicals.

I would like to applaud the numerous cities that are adopting pesticide by laws to stop people from putting their lawns first before the lives of our children. The laisez-faire attitude to using these poisons needs to stop. Just because you can easily buy them in your local garden shop, doesn’t mean that they don’t have the potential to do serious damage to your health and the health of those most vulnerable.

Embrace the dandelions, moss and small critters. There are a number of great natural alternatives out there to help with all of these things. Many available at your local garden shop. My biggest piece of advice to avoid these lawn-related “problems” is that you need to approach lawn care from a preventative perspective, not a reactive one. If you have a healthy lawn, you will not have weeds taking over. A simple soil test will tell you whether the soil is too acidic, or needs more nitrogen. I will post more on this later.

Please pass this story onto everyone that you know, especially those with children.

My heart goes out to this family and I hope that the chemical company will be held accountable for this.