Senate approves pesticide ban at K-8 schools [CT]

THE NEWS-TIMES ^ | May 25, 2007 | Robert Miller

[LurkedLongEnough]

[excerpt]

In New Milford’s elementary and middle schools, kids get grass stains devoid of any chemical residue.

"We don’t apply pesticides to our fields," the schools’ facilities manager John Calhoun said Thursday. "The grass grows really well on its own."

If, as expected, the state House of Representatives follows the lead of the Senate, New Milford’s lawn care practices — creating green lawns in every sense of the word — will become standard operating procedure in the state.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted unanimously to ban the use of lawn-care pesticides and herbicides on the lawns surrounding day-care centers, primary schools, and middle schools up to eighth grade.

That ban would go into effect immediately after the bill’s passage. Schools would have until 2009 to adopt organic lawn-care practices for playing fields.

[LurkedLongEnough]

This was a last-ditch measure by the legislature, who were desperately trying to find a compromise alternative to making it a crime for one child to cause another to trip and fall on the grass at public school. ////ssss

[hsalaw]

Or they could just tell the little rugrats not to eat the grass.

[Zeppo]

Gotta follow the money on this one - no doubt the Lyme Disease-bearing Tick lobby was throwing their weight behind this bill - those ticks may be small, but, as with other common parasites, their influence on the Democrat-infested Connecticut legislature is immense...