STRIPES SAR EEN NG CENA A

NEWS photo Mike Wakefield

TRY using ecclogically sensitive ways to manage the pests in your garden — like
beer, which slugs love to drink ... until it kills them.

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For all your gardening questions. @
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it’s time to update
legislation

THE controversy over
the use of pesticides has
come into sharp focus
with the introduction of
a private members bill
for a ban on cosmetic
use of pesticides.

Bill C-388 has been put
forward by Liberal MP
Marlene Jennings and was
supported by a recent Liberal
Policy Convention. Private
member's bills do not have a
high success rate for being,
passed into law but are some-

’ times used by the government

to test public reaction or gen-
erate discussion on an issue. If
Bill C-388 does pass through

. parliament it would ban the

- cosmetic use of all pesticides
on all private and public land. .

| The bill does allow exceptions.”
-- for some agricultural buildings

and some select scientifically
approved products. -

The rational behind
Jennings’ bill is that pesticides
are responsible for many of the
serious health problems that
face our communities today.
Supporters of the bill attribute
birth defects, brain cancer, _

» leukemia, stomach cancer and
a host of other health prob-..
lems to the use of pesticides —
around the home and in pub-
lic areas. They also suggest | -
that the majority Gf pesticides
are not adequately ested

i before being placed on the

t. .
Much of the problem...

would happen with Bill C-
388, it would make more
sense to update the pesticide. |
legislation and improve the
dispensing system. Garden
centres in Germany, for exam-"
ple, dispense pesticides as if
they were prescription drugs.
The user is briefed on the
proper use of all chemicals.
pesticides in Canada. >
currently listed for sale have +
gone through a testing proce-

dure that is stricter than those ~. +" a

for prescription drugs. With .

- objective and-scientific evi:

dence rather than activism’'or

ment, the BCLNA has been

- working for a number of years

stems from. the fact the federal: “di

: government has not updated
; the pesticide legislation over

_ the last 30 years to reflect c
rent scientific knowledge and -
; public valucs. Rather

. over-react and implement an

Sy . outright ban on pesticides, as

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