Hello everyone,
Do any of you use RoundUp weedkiller near your child?
If the answer is no, then you'll be wanting to know that Falmouth Town Council now spray most of Falmouth with it. They use a stronger version than what you get in the shop.
The main ingredient in RoundUp (glyphosate) was reclassified by the World Health Organisation on March 20th 2015.
As it causes cancer in animals, it's now classified as "probably causes cancer in humans".
www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf
It's active for around 6 months in the top layers of soil, so it's a huge issue if your kid, or dog for that matter, likes to sit/roll/play/jump where it's been used.
It takes a few days for the evidence to show, and there are no warning signs.
The grass or weeds which has been teated then goes brown and gradually dies.
The chemical is in a large area because they're blanket spraying, as opposed to drops on a particular weed. After a while the grass/weed dies and goes away to leave a bare area.
It's used in all the parks, play parks, a couple of schools, the grassy verges and all over the streets!
The practice of using this in public areas is banned in a few countries around the world, Canada, Holland, Denmark, Sri Lanka etc
France brings their ban in later this year.
A lot of cities have bans/restrictions, including Paris and Chicago.
The UK is being super slow with restricting its use.
Falmouth only started spraying like this last year, and I'm trying to make enough noise to have it stopped. There are safe alternatives, so it's very confusing why they're using it.
The chemical was linked with autism last year and parkinsons the year before.
It damages DNA and damages the chromosomes of those residents who live near a spray area.
It sounds crazy, but I've got emails from them, as I've been trying to get them to stop since last year. I've unbelievably had to start a petition, but the health of our children is at risk.
Hope I'm not breaking rules by posting the petition link, but if I am, please google for the 38 Degrees petition "No to Poison Parks in Falmouth", there's also another one for the dogs and animals "Don't Hurt Our Dogs and Other Animals".
However, as this is a public health warning, it would look very strange if the links were removed.
It's strange enough that councils are getting away with doing this.
Hopefully I've posted the links correctly.
you.38degrees.org.uk/p/falmouthpoisonparks
you.38degrees.org.uk/p/animalcancer
I'm still in disbelief that straggly grass and/or "weed" removal using a dangerous persistent chemical, is more important than the health of our kids and pets.
Please sign and share with as many people as you can, a lot of signatures will be required. Most importantly, please inform other parents this is happening.