Harmful lawn chemicals in Leisure World
Protecting people and pets in Leisure World from harmful chemicals used in lawn care products is a major problem and a health concern. L.W. has beautiful greenbelts with a maze of cement walkways that wind throughout. Each of the dozen and more Mutuals is responsible for selecting the lawn care products for the green belts within their Mutual. Consequently, there is exposure to a lot of different chemicals of which some are more harmful than others. Our walkways are open to all of the community and people and pets weave in and out of the various Mutuals not knowing what chemicals they are being exposed to.
Some of our pets are becoming ill. One owner said she has experienced many vet visits at a great expense trying to find out the cause of her pet’s illness. Her dog now has permanent liver damage and the vet believes it is from exposure to toxins in lawn sprays. Recently, I sat next to a lady attending a L.W. meeting and she began to cough. She said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what it is, but each time I attend these meetings in L.W., I begin to cough.”
Our immune system is not as robust as it was in our younger days and we are all more susceptible when exposed to harmful chemicals.
We need a unanimous effort from all L.W. Mutuals to switch to safe lawn care products. Fortunately, there are a variety of safe lawn care products available. I applaud my Mutual for crossing over to these safe products. Why wouldn’t every Mutual want to do so? When walking in L.W. we often cross through several greenbelts and it is impossible to know which pathway is less toxic than another. Solving this problem only takes common sense. Simply obtain a list a safe lawn products from local lawn and garden centers and make the switch to safe products. Several residents mentioned about the number of dead bees they have observed along our pathways and this is also disturbing because we need to protect the bees too. If bees all die, so goes our food chain. Can we not all agree to do the right thing and make the switch? If each Mutual agreed to switch to the same “safe lawn care product,” we might even be able to negotiate a big discount for buying in bulk. We would gain peace of mind knowing that we are no longer being exposed to toxic chemicals and may realize a savings as well. Please ask your Mutual presidents and directors to switch to safe lawn care products and help protect the health of all our people and pets.
Alice Goecke, Mutual 4
Leisure World, Seal Beach
