*Using chemicals on your lawn and garden effects the environment by using more fossil fuels, water and fertilizer than a natural lawn care program.

*The EPA estimates that just 2% of the active ingredient in weed killers (herbicides) never reach the target plant. What happens to the other 98%?  It makes it to the soil, ground water, atmosphere, onto other non target plants or another part of our environment.

 

*Over 40 different pesticides are used on home lawns.  12 of these pesticides are suspected of causing human cancer.  21 have been shown to cause long term effects like birth defects and nervous system damage.

 

*In past EPA ground water surveys, Dacthal, most frequently used on lawns is the most common pesticide in water wells.  Also many suburban community wells were heavily contaminated with the cancer linked nitrates from fertilizers.

*Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides can become a part of your home by being tracked in and lodged in cracks of your floor or the weave of your indoor carpeting.

.*"More than  90% of pesticides and inert ingredients are never tested for their effects on developing nervous systems, children are more affected by exposure to such chemicals because they are smaller and their organs are not mature."  John Wargo Director of the Yale Center for Children's Environmental Health

*Studies have shown that dogs are more likely to contract bladder cancer when exposed to chemically treated lawns. April 2004 Journal of the American Veterinary Medicine Association