The uphill battle against chemical lawn treatments is about to get a boost from an unexpected source: dog lovers.
If a full-scale investigation is ever launched it will probably stem from grassroots efforts by the Safer Pest Control Project, a group of environmentalists best known for doing what most skeptics predicted would prove impossible: convincing the Chicago Housing Authority to employ a low-toxic approach to killing cockroaches in the Henry Horner housing complex.
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It may be more difficult to persuade middle-class home owners to give up their lawn chemicals, if only because of the promise of weedless lawns without doing any work.
According to Yeary, his company’s products grow green, healthy grass. But Tucker vigorously disagrees, arguing that pesticides are counterproductive. “There are pesticides that kill fungi, insects, plants–even mollusks,” Tucker says. “But people have to realize that to have healthy grass you need healthy soil, and healthy soil relies on a whole series of prey-predator relationships that these chemicals destroy. There are different worms, insects, fungi, and bacteria all at work supporting the health of the grass. Once you kill one part, you throw the process off.”
Hayes wrote a follow-up article in which he acknowledged that “all critiques correctly conclude that our [original] study does not prove that 2,4-D exposure in the home environment is a cause of malignant lymphoma in companion dogs.” But he added that “rarely can a single epidemiological study prove causation….Until additional studies [are done], the higher risk we found in dogs whose owners personally apply 2,4-D…would, at the very least, argue for prudence in the pursuit of a perfect lawn.”
According to Monreal, Bear was a healthy six-year-old dog until last spring, when he began to move sluggishly and breathe heavily. “The vet did a test and we discovered Bear had cancer,” says Monreal. “I was hysterical. I couldn’t believe it. He had always been so healthy. I didn’t know how he could have got it. I never imagined that lawns would be hazardous. I was so naive I didn’t know pesticides were used in residential areas.”
