Chart prepared by Real
Alternatives to Toxins in the Environment
February 18, 2011, Updated July
2, 2014.
Keeping
both levels of protection is the
best way to protect health and environment
because
the two levels are complementary
and each is essential.
Items in green
print provide greater health protection.
For a
printable one-page version click here.
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Halifax
Regional Municipality Pesticide Bylaw: |
Provincial Non
Essential Pesticide Control Act.
http://nslegislature.ca/legc/sol.htm
(Act) and (Regulations) http://www.gov.ns.ca/just/regulations/rxam-z.htm#non
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HRM
has Pre-Signage: Pre-Signage is the most important aspect of our bylaw for
those with life threatening symptoms to landscape pesticides (other than a
total ban). It allows these individuals to be safe in their homes. They
include vulnerable populations like pregnant mothers, the unborn, children,
the chronically ill, the elderly, pets, and the pesticide sensitive. These
groups need to avoid pesticide drift by leaving their homes prior to nearby spraying. Signs are
posted 24 hours in advance and left up 4 days so these individuals can avoid
persistent pesticide vapours and drift. |
No
Pre-Signage. Without pre-signage many will have already been exposed by the
time the sign goes up. This
could be fatal for some and has previously left many citizens chronically ill
for years. The
inadequate provincial signage rules have not been improved. Only small signs, with hard to read print
and poor weather resistance, are required by the province; these are put up
after the event and taken down early. |
Buffer Zones -The HRM has pesticide free buffer zones around “a
property containing any school, licensed day care centre, park, playground,
licensed senior citizens’ residence, university, church or hospital.”
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Buffer Zones - The province has no such buffer zones. Note:
Neither law has any provision for
buffer zones for wellhead protection to protect drinking water wells or
reservoirs. |
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Effectiveness - Despite not having
jurisdiction over sales and commercial properties, there has been a huge reduction in pesticide use on
municipal & most residential properties (i.e., a steady reduction in
compliance problems). Stability – a public hearing is
customary and appropriate for any proposed changes to the bylaw.
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Effectiveness – Yet to be
determined, but annual audits show that compliance problems are increasing each year. Pesticides sales are now approved at
38 locations. Low
Stability - regulations
could easily be reversed at any time without public hearings. This is a possibility with any change
in government. |
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The
list of allowable materials in Administrative Order 23 has been
guided successfully by the Organic Materials Review Institute’s (OMRI) Approved
Materials List for the last decade.
Allowable Materials can be easily updated or changed if needed without
affecting the Pesticide bylaw itself. |
The allowable list of less
toxic products is based on Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory
Agency’s less toxic products list; their history and policies regarding safer
materials have provided inadequate health protection in the past. Can
only be changed by Provincial government. |
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Permitting
System The HRM benefits from the permitting system that has
been used for over a decade. It has lowered pesticide usage and encouraged
proper identification of pests, education about alternatives and proper pest
management, as well as the dangers of pesticide use. Education is site specific, especially
important and absolutely necessary in high-density population areas like
cities and towns. The Pesticide By-law has a proven success record: “Permit
applications have fallen approximately ten-fold since 2003 to 440 in 2008,
and complaints have fallen almost 20-fold in the same period. HRM’s effort
has shifted from permitting and enforcement towards education and awareness”
(Staff Report.) |
No
Permitting System Decisions to approve the sale of pesticide
products not on the allowable list are up to the buyer (who will be given a
pamphlet regarding exceptions). Therefore decisions are made by companies
that profit from the sale or use of pesticides. Anyone, landscaper or
resident, can buy a toxic product if they think they have an exceptional
pest. The
definitions of “exception” are vague and need tightening. All NS municipalities have the right to make stronger
regulations than those passed by the province. An example would be requiring
pre-signage and notification in their bylaws. Education - Success yet to be determined, but unlike the
HRM, education will be without the benefit of an inspector seeing the actual
property and therefore cannot be site specific.
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Areas
affected
– lawns, outdoor trees, shrubs, flowers,
and other ornamental plants on residential and municipal properties. All herbicides
are explicitly prohibited. Does not include Commercial properties. |
Areas
affected
- It was a 2-year phase in. Regulations did not include trees and shrubs
until 2012. Involuntary pesticide exposures can drift from nearby vegetable
gardens which are still unprotected. All properties are included:
municipal, commercial & residential. |
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Notification: Requirements read, “The
owner of a property, prior to carrying out a pesticide application on the
owner’s property ... shall notify the owner of ... any property all or a part
of which is within a 50 metre radius of the property to which the pesticide
application is to be made, received within 5 days of the proposed application.”
This requirement is important in densely populated areas where one lawn could
affect many in nearby homes and apartments. |
Notification: Advance
notice is required only of landscapers and for next-door neighbors who have specifically requested notification.
Therefore there is incomplete protection for vulnerable populations to avoid
exposure to pesticides. HRM’s
Pesticide Bylaw Advisory Committee documented numerous adverse reactions to drifting
pesticides applied four houses away. |