A group of Naperville residents accompanied by environmental experts lobbied the Naperville Park Board this week to make permanent a ban on using Roundup and other chemical weed killers in city parks.
“The thing of this is, we’re talking about toxic chemicals,” said Naperville resident Keith Klingeman, one of about 20 people to attend the Thursday meeting. “It’s about safety and proper usage and being responsible.”
The Naperville Park District temporarily suspended the use of Monsanto’s Roundup brand of herbicide glyphosate on playgrounds in June after a sign alerting residents it had been applied brought the issue to the public’s attention and a petition drive to stop the practice was launched. Park officials agreed to experiment with organic weed control products to test their effectiveness.
The potential human and environmental risks associated with Roundup and glyphosate — and where the herbicides should and shouldn’t be used — has been a matter of debate in recent years.
Klingeman and others at the meeting said they believed the use of some chemicals, such as those used in Roundup, pose a risk to both humans and nature.
“We haven’t even talked about the bumble bees and the monarchs,” Klingeman said. “All of these chemicals flow back in — it’s an ecosystem.”
The experts who spoke argued against the use of weed-killing chemicals, saying children spend more time playing in grassy areas and as a result are at a higher risk of being harmed by them.
“You have to think of them as little metabolic machines,” said Susan Buchanan, clinical associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and director of the Great Lakes Center for Children’s Environmental Health. According to Buchanan, some studies have linked pesticide exposure to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and lower IQ scores.
“Based on my expertise, I strongly urge you not to use pesticides on any surface where people will play,” Buchanan said.
Ryan Anderson, program and communications manager for Midwest Pesticide Action Center, suggested the city adopt an Integrated Pest Management program.
The program would involve avoiding chemicals with words like danger and caution on the labels, adhering to proper watering amounts and grass height, and aerating at the correct times each year.
“View the grass as your own internal body,” Anderson said.
Mike Reilly, president of the Naperville Park Board, said district staff will present their findings on the use of organic weed control products after summer ends. Until then, the ban on Roundup and similar chemical weed killers will continue, he said.
