Friday, April 1, 2011

Middletown Residents Hear the Message: "Get Your Lawn off Drugs! "


"Chemical Reaction" Draws Crowd at MxCC

Over fifty people came out last night in the rain to watch “A Chemical Reaction”, an inspirational documentary about the dangerous health effects of lawn chemicals and one community’s successful campaign to ban them in Canada. The film follows Paul Tukey, a former lawn care practitioner and founder of SafeLawns, on his path across the country and into Canada to spread the word about the dangers of lawn chemicals and how to have beautiful, lush lawns organically. Paul’s own health was affected from using lawn chemicals and at his doctor’s advice he made a transition to organic methods. He now has extensive experience maintaining organic lawns. Through the movie Paul tracked the progress of Dr. June Irwin’s efforts to ban lawn care chemicals from her town due to the medical problems she was seeing in her patients. The ban passed, was upheld by the Canadian Supreme Court and eventually spread all across Canada.

After the film Scott Reil, a Connecticut accredited nurseryman, organic lawn care professional, and representative of SafeLawns, led a discussion on organic lawn care. He answered many questions ranging from how to make the switch to organics, to how to deal with poison ivy, and whether crabgrass really is bad for your lawn. Scott also maintains the website, helpfulgardener.com, which offers useful information on organic gardening.

Community leaders attending the event included State Representative Matt Lesser, City Councilmen David Bauer and Dan Drew and the Director of the Water & Sewer Department, Guy Russo. The evening ended with a drawing for a variety of fun doorprizes. Winners received low water use plants suitable for use in place of grass (donated by Scott Reil); The Organic Lawn Care Manual by Paul Tukey, and a plant sale gift certificate (donated by Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District); The Healthy Home Book by Dr. Myron Wentz and Dave Wentz (donated by Cindy Snow), a Middlesex Community College tshirt (donated by the college); and a Green Cone food digester (donated by the City Public Works Department).

Little yellow signs are popping up all over the City announcing the beginning of lawn care season. Now is the time to think about what we apply to our lawns. The film makes a compelling case for chem-free, organic lawns, not only the safe choice, but the choice for sustainable, healthy and lush lawns. When human health is at stake, “better safe than sorry” as one expert aptly told it.

More information on the film can be found at safelawns.org/chemical-reaction. Residents wanting more local information can contact the City Recycling Coordinator at 860-344-3526 or kim.orourke@cityofmiddletown.com.

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This event was co-hosted by Project Green Lawn and the Sustainability Team of Middlesex Community College. Co-sponsors included the City Public Works and Health Departments, Connecticut River Coastal Conservation District, Jonah Center for Earth and Art, ARTFARM, Middletown Regional Agricultural Science & Technology Center and Middletown Garden Club.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousApril 2, 2011 at 4:13 AM

    I will be proudly standing by my Chemlawn guy when he arrives today, just like always. A green, bushy lawn is a sign of class.

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