Pesticides in Lawns; How it Affects Children and Pets

Pesticides, by their very nature, are toxic: their purpose is to kill insects and animals. Fertilizers are often combined with weed killers or made with products that can be toxic. Depending on how they’re used and how children are exposed, they can indeed be harmful.

Children and infants are particularly vulnerable because they are more likely to crawl through treated grass and put fingers or grass in their mouths. When an infant, who may crawl on the treated grass, is exposed to pesticides the immature liver and kidneys cannot remove pesticides from the body as well as an adult’s liver and kidneys.

Many municipalities have banned pesticides and certain fertilizers in an effort to halt the dangers associated with their use and misuse. These decisions are not random; pesticides and fertilizers have been implicated in a wide range of physical and neurological symptoms in human beings as well as to serious symptoms in animals.

What’s more, there is no scientific standard for how long one should stay off a lawn after it is treated. Many companies that use these chemicals warn that people should stay away from sprayed surfaces for six to 24 hours. Yet a 2013 study examining the levels of lawn pesticides in the urine of dogs found that herbicides persisted on lawn surfaces or at least 48 hours after spraying.

Tags: Irrigation & Lawn