January 16, 2003

For More Information, contact:
Audrey Thier: 413-441-9392 (cell)
Laura Haight: 518-588-5481 (cell)

Groups Find "Rampant" Pesticide Use in Westchester; Call for State Ban on Aesthetic Pesticide Use

(Albany) Two statewide environmental groups, Environmental Advocates of New York and the New York Public Interest Research Group Fund, released a report today documenting "rampant" pesticide use in Westchester County. The report, "Avoidable Risk: Pesticide Use Patterns in Westchester County for 1999," is their third annual analysis of pesticide use and sales data for Westchester County reported to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The report's major findings include the following:

• For the third year in a row, Westchester reported some of the highest pesticide use in New York. In 1999, Westchester ranked the third highest county in the state by pounds and fifth by gallons of pesticides used;




• 1.9 million pounds and 182,000 gallons of pesticides were applied by commercial applicators in Westchester in 1999, an increase over previous years;




• Among the top pesticides used in Westchester in 1999 was chlorpyrifos (known by its trade name Dursban®), a neurotoxic insecticide that has since been banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for most residential uses due to both its risk of acute poisoning and concerns that it may also cause developmental damage to fetuses and infants;




• Pesticides sprayed to control the spread of West Nile virus in 1999, the first year of the outbreak, accounted for less than 1% of the total pesticides used in the county that year.

"What we're seeing in Westchester is a pattern of intensive and increasing pesticide use, particularly for frivolous purposes such as lawn care," said Audrey Thier, pesticide project director of Environmental Advocates and author of the report. "We believe that much of the pesticide use and exposure in Westchester is entirely avoidable by switching to safer products and alternative practices."

"Westchester County has been a leader on pesticide issues by phasing out pesticide use on County-owned property, adopting the Pesticide Neighbor Notification Law, and embarking on an aggressive public education program on pesticide risks and alternatives," said Laura Haight, senior environmental associate with NYPIRG. "All these programs were instated after 1999, and we are hopeful that future reporting years will document declines in Westchester's pesticide use."

The two environmental groups are calling on the State Legislature to pass a bill, introduced by Assemblyman Thomas P. DiNapoli and Senator Kenneth LaValle, that would ban the aesthetic use of pesticides in New York that are suspected of causing cancer, endocrine disruption, and other serious health and environmental problems. Quebec instituted such a ban province-wide in 2002 after several of its smaller municipalities had done so.

"Using hazardous pesticides around our homes for purely aesthetic purposes is all public health risk and no gain," Thier said.

The Westchester report, as well as separate reports released for New York City and New York State, can be downloaded at www.eany.org or www.nypirg.org.