Pesticides in Our Bodies?

Pesticides in Our Bodies?

At Natural GREEN Lawns, we try to focus on the Safety Aspects and the Value Proposition of having an organic-based lawn, or as we like to call it, a Natural GREEN Lawn.  We typically avoid highlighting potential health impacts from the broadcast use of dangerous herbicides and synthetic chemicals.  Scare tactics are not our thing.  What we’ve found is that once folks understand how organic lawn treatments work, it become a no-brainer.  Well, when it relates to pesticides in our bodies, we’re making somewhat of an exception.

Pesticides in our Bodies – How They Get There

There are many ways that pesticides and other unwanted chemicals can enter our body.  These problems caused by these pesticides can be either immediate or long term.  One way they enter our bodies is through the food we eat.  Pesticides can reside on the surface of a cherry tomato or within the body of the fruit, for example.  Pesticides and unwanted chemicals can also enter our bodies  through our lungs.  Pesticide spraying can be a culprit.  Industrial fumes are another.  Pesticides and unwanted chemicals can enter our bodies by being absorbed by our skin.  These chemicals can enter our bodies directly should we touch our mouth, nostril or eyes.  Avoid all of these.

Well, we came across the following fun and informative video by an organic supermarket in Sweden named Coop.  It related to reducing pesticides in our bodies, and thought we would share it.

Research Project

The video is called “Organic Effect” and follows a typical family of five living in Sweden.  As part of a research project, that family allowed researchers to fully switch their typical non-organic diet, essentially the things we all regularly purchased at a supermarket, to a 100% organic alternative.  The duration of the “switch” was only two weeks.  Prior to beginning, the family, children and all, provided urine samples to the research team.  Each family member was found to have numerous pesticides inside their bodies.  This included certain insecticides, certain fungicides and other plant-growth regulators.  The family members provided urine samples again once the two-week research term was completed.  The research team scrubbed and analyzed the data.  What the results showed, after only two weeks, was quite startling.

Research Results

After only two weeks, every member of the family showed a significant reduction in pesticide levels in their bodies.  These include 3-PBA (3-Phenoxybenzoic acid) and TCP (1,2,3-Trichloropropane),  an ingredient used to produce chemicals such as Dichloropropene, a soil fumigant.

From the research we’ve conducted, the experiment and video appear legitimate.  It does have its detractors though.  Call us cynical, but many of the detractors probably work for the big chemical companies that profit from the manufacture of those materials.  While most do not dispute the results of the experiment, they believe it’s misleading.   We’ll explain…

What is a Pesticide

Let’s begin by offering up a definition of a pesticide.  A pesticide is a substance used to destroy organisms harmful to cultivated plants. A cultivated plant is grown for food and eventual human consumption.  A cultivated plant can also be used as feed for livestock designed for human consumption.  Simple enough.

Going back to pesticides, these are substances used to destroy organisms harmful to cultivated plants.  These organisms include plant-destroying insects and unwanted fungi, for example.  Pesticides, therefor, include herbicides (week killers) and insecticides (insect killers.)  Detractors to this video would argue that regular household items such as vinegar, mineral oil and onion spray should therefore also fall into that category of pesticide.  They argue that while chemical pesticides used in conventional farming did disappear from the family’s urine samples, other “pesticides” used in organic farming did not.  These could include the aforementioned vinegar, mineral oil and onion spray.  They may have increased, but the researchers didn’t test for those.

Personally, I’d rather have vinegar and onions in my children’s system rather than 1,2,3-Trichloropropane and 3-Phenoxybenzoic acid.  Call me crazy all you want.

Food for Thought

To be fair, let’s take the experiment and video simply as food-for-thought.  There are so many ways we can end up with pesticides in our bodies.  When looking at organic lawn care versus synthetic chemical lawn care, we recognize we don’t eat our grass.  Our pets might, actually a majority of them do, but hopefully our kids don’t.  However, little hands, feet and paws are always walking, crawling and playing on the grass.  They are thus all exposed.  Those same little hands, feet and pawns will likely end up in their mouth.  That can’t be good.

Peace of Mind

At Natural GREEN Lawns, as noted earlier, we focus on the Value Proposition of having an organic-based lawn.  The value proposition can be achieved in several ways.  Reduced water usage is one of them.  A natural, organic-based lawn contains billions (even trillions) of living, active micro-organisms.  Micro-organisms naturally aerate the soil, making it softer and spongier.  Spongier organic lawns requires 50%-75% less irrigation than chemically treated lawns.  Another is through the reduced need for insecticides.   A healthy, organic lawn naturally deters and even kills unwanted lawn pests.  These include ants and grub, for instance.

Our Two Lawn Fertilization Programs

Our goal at Natural GREEN Lawns is for our customers to have a healthier, safer alternative to a synthetic chemical lawn.  “Transition to Organic”  is designed to seamlessly transition your synthetic chemical lawn to a natural, organic-based lawn.  This is done through the limited use of weed pre-emergent and spot (not broadcast) spraying of actively growing weeds.  “Naturally Organic” uses no chemical pesticides.  The focus is on cultivating a lawn that will naturally crown out weeds.  Under this program we only use organic pesticides, as needed, to eliminate actively growing weeds.

Conclusion

Pesticides in our bodies?  No thanks.  While we can’t have our children living inside a bubble, there are things we can and should do.  Eat more organic foods is one of them.  Reduce your children and pets’ exposure to potentially dangerous pesticides is another.

The peace of mind of knowing you’ve done what you could do to reduce exposure is tremendous.  If you really think about it, that may be the best Value Proposition of all!