Is Your Lawn Safe?

The American shruburbs. A safe place to raise your kids, right? Maybe, but here's another "dark side of the American dream" story, with an easy solution:

More than 70 million pounds of pesticides are sprayed onto America’s 30 million acres of lawns each year by companies like ChemLawn, who've made the perfect lawn an icon more imporant than the white picket fence.

The rate of pesticides used on lawns is ten times greater (per acre) than the rate used on agricultural land. A lot of the ingredients cause cancer and other problems.

The Massachusetts Toxics Action Center has launched a new campaign to make ChemLawn stop using toxic pesticides, offer its customers an organic lawn care program (like they do in Canada), disclose all the ingredients they do use, and stop using children to market their products.

A pretty good summertime corporate campaign.