This week a group of residents from Naperville, IL and some environmental experts requested that the Naperville Park Board make a permanent ban on using Roundup and other chemical weed killers in city parks. This is huge- we didn’t see things happen like this 10 years ago! Our message is spreading.
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Back in June the Naperville Park District temporarily suspended the use of Roundup on playgrounds after the public started a petition to stop the practice. Officials listened to residents (that’s awesome and doesn’t happen often enough) and agreed to “experiment with organic weed control products to test their effectiveness.”1
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Residents made the request because they believe, and rightly so, that the use of chemicals like the ones in Roundup pose a serious risk to people and the environment. And the experts present reminded the board that children spend more time playing in grassy areas and are, therefore, at a higher risk of being harmed.
“‘You have to think of them as little metabolic machines,’ said Susan Buchanan, clinical associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and director of the Great Lakes Center for Children’s Environmental Health. According to Buchanan, some studies have linked pesticide exposure to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and lower IQ scores.”2
Ryan Anderson, the program and communications manager for Midwest Pesticide Action Center, suggested everyone view the grass “as your own internal body.”3 If it’s something you can’t eat, should you really be rolling around in it? Getting its residuals in your eyes, nose, and mouth? Likely, no.
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At the end of the summer, district staff will present their findings on the use of organic weed control products but until that happens, the ban will continue.
This is good news people.
