The use of pesticides in Canada is regulated by Health Canada via the Pest Control Products Act to provide effective management of pest infestations when other methods of pest control are not succeeding for the health of the community.[1] Pesticide use is occasionally contentious.
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In Canada, 154 municipalities and the entire provinces of Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick have now placed restrictions on the cosmetic use of synthetic lawn pesticides as a result of health and environmental concerns.[2] The Ontario provincial government promised on September 24, 2007 to also implement a province-wide ban on the cosmetic use of lawn pesticides, for protecting the public.[3] Medical and environmental groups support such a ban.[4] On April 22, 2008, the Provincial Government of Ontario announced that it will pass legislation that will prohibit, province-wide, the cosmetic use and sale of lawn and garden pesticides.[5] The Ontario province-wide pesticide ban on lawn pesticides will come into force on Earth Day, April 22, 2009. [6] Over 250 products will be banned for sale and more than 95 pesticide ingredients will be banned for cosmetic uses.[7] The Ontario legislation would also echo Massachusetts law requiring pesticide manufacturers to reduce the toxins they use in production.[8] On June 18, 2009, the Province of New Brunswick implement a province-wide lawn pesticide ban on over 200 pesticides.[9] The Province of Prince Edward Island has also announced that it will pass legislation that bans cosmetic pesticides, starting 2010.[10]
For example, in Montague on Prince Edward Island , nine fish kills happened in one year: every fish, snake, and snail was killed in a river called Sutherland's Hole near potato farms from which herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides ran off after heavy rains.[11]
A study showed that exposing tadpoles to endosulfan, an organochloride pesticide at levels that are likely to be found in habitats near fields sprayed with the chemical kills the tadpoles and causes behavioral and growth abnormalities.[12]
On April 3, 2008, the Canadian Cancer Society released opinion poll results conducted by Ipsos Reid, which established that a clear majority of residents in the provinces of British Columbia and Saskatchewan want province-wide cosmetic lawn pesticide bans, and that the majority of respondents believe that cosmetic pesticides are a threat to their health.
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment,a non-profit organization dedicated to environmental issues especially as they relate to human health, have campaigned on the hazards of lawn pesticides.