CONTACT:
Megan Kemple
Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides
344-5044 x. 17

EUGENE - Park managers across the Northwest are establishing pesticide-free parks and finding that they are an innovative and effective way to improve parks and make them into healthy models for their communities. A new report shows the many reasons why pesticide-free parks can benefit communities in Lane County.

In Pesticide-free Parks: It's Time!, the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) highlights the problems that recent research has linked to pesticide use:

• Pesticides cause special problems for children. Children are both more exposed to pesticides and more susceptible to their effects. Leading pediatricians recommend protecting children from exposure to pesticides.
• Pesticides poison 30,000 pets a year, and also increase the risk of serious pet illnesses such as cancer.
• People who apply pesticides are at risk for health problems like depression, vision problems, cancer, and breathing difficulties.
• Tiny amounts of pesticides can harm the wildlife that share our parks.
• Pesticides often pollute our air, rivers, and streams. In the Willamette River basin, over 90 percent of the samples tested by a government agency were contaminated with at least one pesticide.
  

"Over two hundred million pounds of pesticides that cause these kinds of problems are used every year in urban areas," said Megan Kemple, NCAP's pesticide-free parks coordinator. "Pesticide-free parks can be important models for the rest of the community in reducing this use of toxic chemicals. They demonstrate to families and businesses how to manage pest problems in a way that is healthy for both people and the environment. They also showcase the many other tools that are available."

Pesticide-free parks use a variety of techniques to solve pest and weed problems. Landscape design that discourages weeds; mulching; well adapted varieties of plants; and hand or power tools are examples of management practices that are used in pesticide-free parks.

The report also announces a pesticide-free parks meeting NCAP is hosting in Eugene on Saturday, October 22. The meeting will be from 3 to 5 PM at the Eugene Public Library. Everyone interested in encouraging Eugene and other Lane County communities to establish pesticide-free parks is invited to attend.

Pesticide-free Parks: It's Time! is available at http://www.pesticide.org/pfpreport.pdf.

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