Popular Though It Is, 2,4-D Could Be Formula For Disaster

Little plastic flags wave to us from the lawns around our neighborhoods. The color varies depending on the company they represent. On frequent walks near my home I wonder if these little flags could also be warnings of an invisible danger.

I called several local lawn care companies to inquire about the chemicals they use to control weeds and other pests. I found a chemical known as 2, 4-D (2, 4, dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) is frequently used.

One company informed me they are allowed to use it only twice a year because it is very powerful.

Developed by the biological warfare research department during World War II, these herbicides were first used starting about 1947 to control broadleaf weeds in cereal grain fields, pastures and lawns. In the 1970s health concerns about the herbicides brought about government restrictions on these and other pesticides.

Agent Orange contained 2, 4-D as well as other herbicides. More than 1,000 registered pesticide products contain one or more derivatives of the acids of 2, 4-D. This substance has been found to affect animals as well as plants. In humans, 2, 4-D exposure may cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, temporary loss of vision, weakness, burning eyes, sore throat with a burning chest, and difficulty in forming thoughts.

Residual effects can be tingling and/or numbness in the feet and hands, memory loss, chronic respiratory impairment and bleeding tendency.

In 1983 the National Cancer Institute found 2, 4-D to be a carcinogen in laboratory animals, one that causes malignant tumors in the lymphatic system and in endocrine and mammary glands. Several studies have linked 2, 4-D to cancer in humans. The National Cancer Institute has linked use of the herbicide with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

People exposed to these phenoxy herbicides more than 20 days a year ran a risk six times normal of developing cancer.

Animals, predominantly dogs, living in households treating their lawns with 2, 4-D-based sprays have twice the chance of developing lymphoma.

Most commercial 2, 4-D products contain inert ingredients that manufacturers call trade secrets. The public does not know the identity of these ingredients.

Our obsession with deep green, weed-free lawns could increase the risk of cancer in ourselves and our pets. The toxic substances can linger in the soil for one to three years after application. If you renew the application twice every year these substances are compounding and creating increasing levels of toxins in your soil. The soil where you and your children play.

You perhaps don’t use a lawn service or do not apply 2, 4-D-based herbicides. But do your neighbors? As their lawns are being treated the spray can drift onto your lawn.

People at a lawn care company I talked to about the spray said they tell customers to keep their pets and children off the lawn until after it dries. If the usually lackadaisical business attitude is sufficiently swayed that you’re given warnings to stay off the lawn until it’s dry, I question if there could be a serious danger here.

Many will say there isn’t enough evidence yet to prove the herbicide is dangerous. I for one don’t want to be, nor do I want my children to be, among the statistics that eventually prove my fears to be well founded.

What can you do about this danger? You can stop using herbicides on your yard. When your lawn is wet, pull that weed. If you don’t have the time or energy to pull it, help a neighborhood youngster earn some extra cash and hire a boy or girl to weed your yard.

I first learned about work and the value of a dollar by weeding yards and mowing lawns as a teenager.

Let the little flags be a warning.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Mark W. Harry Contributing writer