Cheers to the Rockland Legislature for passing the Nontoxic Landcape Maintenance Act

Rockland County, NY legislators passed a bill on June 17, 2008 to eliminate the use of toxic pesticides on all county-owned or leased land. Rose Marie Raccioppi, the community organizer behind the bill, is a member of Beyond Pesticides, the National Pesticide-Free Lawn Coalition, and Orangetown’s Environmental Committee. She brought her concerns about pesticide exposure to the Rockland County Legislature last year, and advocated strongly for the passage of the Rockland County Non-Toxic Landscape Maintenance Act.

LEFT of the HUDSON praises the County's legislators for passing this bill. The legislation was introduced by Legislator Connie Coker (D, District 17) of South Nyack.

We hope that the Rockland County Non-Toxic Landscape Maintenance Act, as it is called, will serve as a guide to our towns and school districts in adopting similar laws in regards to pesticide use. Further, we believe that New York State should change the current law on the books that does not allow the state's municipalities to enact legislation that regulates the use of pesticides on private land.

Passing such a law in the State Legislature would allow counties such as Rockland to ban the use of toxic pesticides altogether if they so choose. We need to protect our children and ourselves from the unseen neurological dangers that pesticides (and even some fertilizers) pose. We also need to protect our river, which becomes choked with pesticides and fertilizers from runoff.

While Rockland County still lacks the legal ability to regulate pesticide use on private land, this legislation serves as an example to the residents of the county, hopefully making them aware of their own lawn- and garden-care practices.

We're especially concerned with pesticides as of late because of possible evidence that it may have a role to play in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Women who live near California farm fields sprayed with organochlorine pesticides may be more likely to give birth to children with autism, according to a study by state health officials to be published today.

The rate of autism among the children of 29 women who lived near the fields was extremely high, suggesting that exposure to the insecticides in the womb might have played a role. The study is the first to report a link between pesticides and the neurological disorder, which affects one in every 150 children.

The study does not indict pesticides as the cause of autism, but it does raise the suggestion that further studies are needed.

But, in the meantime, we all know that pesticides are nothing but poison, and that they can and have been proven to cause cancers, immunological disorders, and neurological problems.

Again, hats off to the Rockland County Legislature for doing the right thing!