This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The editorial "Post a warning: Chemical poisons taken too lightly" (Our View, Oct. 8) — and forthcoming legislation by state Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, urging mandatory warnings for neighbors of pesticide applications is laudable, but it doesn't go far enough.

We must restrict and ultimately ban applications of such chemicals, which would still allow for perfectly efficacious non-toxic yard care.

Mandatory warnings minimize acute exposures (for sign-reading humans and their pets, but not urban wildlife), but they tacitly endorse the pesticide/lawn industry's spurious claims about these chemicals – that they are potentially harmful only immediately after spraying or if "misapplied."

Actually, most commonly used lawn pesticides are linked with a variety of serious health effects, plus they migrate into groundwater and runoff; they affect our common environment.

Chemical "approval" does not equal chemical safety. Banning them is not only democratically justified, but crucial.

Jonathan Jensen

Salt Lake City