Activists seek ban on pesticides

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Area environmental activists are calling for a ban on pesticides and herbicides such as Roundup at parks, playgrounds and private homes.

Bronx Climate Justice North, a new grassroots advocacy group, and the Riverdale Nature Preservancy, a non-profit dedicated to protecting the environment here, sent letters to Councilman Andrew Cohen earlier this fall.

Only the letter from the former group calls for an outright ban on products like glyphosate, the scientific name for Roundup, but both organizations expressed strong concerns about synthetic pesticides and herbicides’ health effects on children and adults.

They referenced studies such as a 2009 Mount Sinai Hospital Report that found, “When humans are exposed to pesticides, unintended health effects can occur, ranging from damage to the brain, immune and endocrine system disruptions, injury to reproductive organs, birth defects and cancer.”

Activist and Riverdale resident Alisa Eilenberg said damages from pesticide use create “a tremendous toll and loss to society, loss of productivity and potential.”

“There are alternatives,” continued Ms. Eilenberg, a leader in the heated 1992 fight against Bronx Lebanon Hospital’s plan to create a waste incinerator. “We are opening this conversation in our community now.”

Mr. Cohen said he was receptive to the discussion.

“I definitely have concerns,” he said. “I’m not sure that placing poison in our parks is necessarily good policy.”

“I think the Parks Department believes that currently it’s a tool in their arsenal they are not ready to give up,” he added. “But I think it’s worth exploring how we could possibly reduce the usage.”

The councilman said he was not ready to commit to any plan yet, but promised to raise the issue of pesticide and herbicide use with Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver at the next meeting of the City Council’s Parks Committee.

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conservation, pesticides, Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx Climate Justice North, Riverdale Nature Preservancy, Alisa Eilenberg, Andrew Cohen, Christina Taylor, Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, Shant Shahrigian
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