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Pesticide Risk Reduction

What are Pesticides

What are Pesticides?
A pesticide is any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, control, repel or destroy a pest. In Canada, there are a wide variety of registered pesticides, each with its own chemical characteristics, all of which influence risk. Risks posed by pesticide use depends on where and how products are applied.

Pesticide Risk – Community and City
There are more than 7,000 pesticides registered in Canada. Agricultural use is the highest, accounting for 91% of total Canadian sales. While domestic use accounts for only 5% of Canadian sales, studies have found that the concentration of pesticides applied in urban areas is often significantly higher than on agricultural land.

In Metro Vancouver, it has been reported that 65% of Lower Mainland households with lawns or gardens use pesticides. ‘Weed and feed’ type products and moss killers are the most common (33% and 29% respectively).

Pesticides are also used by our City for health purposes (ie. West Nile virus), nuisance control, and aesthetic and maintenance requirements. In 1992, the City adopted an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach for reducing and managing pesticide use. An IPM approach focuses on preventing pests from becoming a problem by creating healthy conditions.

If a pest outbreak occurs, the IPM approach is to:

  • accurately identify the problem
  • monitor the pest problems to find out whether or not controls may be necessary
  • tolerate a reasonable level of damage
  • use non-chemical means such as physical controls (pruning or weeding) or biological controls (lady beetles or parasitic wasps)
  • use pesticides sparingly and only where monitoring showed they are needed

Regulation of Pesticides
The Federal Government is responsible for determining whether a pesticide can be used in Canada. The Provincial Government is responsible for managing pesticide use in British Columbia.

A Supreme Court decision upholding the City of Hudson Pesticide bylaw to restrict “cosmetic” (non-essential use) has generated increased momentum in municipalities across Canada to also begin evaluating options for restricting cosmetic pesticide use within their jurisdictions. The Court decision, however, noted that the municipal jurisdiction was limited to the ability to restrict “cosmetic” use only.