Is It Safe? Lawn Treatment

Q: Lawn treatment companies leave little flags on our lawn serving notice that it was treated with chemicals. How risky is it if the kids and dog play on the lawn while the flags are still up or afterward?

A: Homeowner or lawn company treatment of grass with pesticide does carry with it some risk as the pesticides can be absorbed across the skin and even vaporize and become inhaled. Children and pets have the greatest potential for exposure and adverse reaction. The little (usually yellow) lawn flags are an admission that the lawn company has left a potentially harmful residue on the lawn. Since there are a variety of herbicides and insecticides that could be used on a lawn it is hard to say exactly what the risk would be in any single case. However, effects on the lungs, nervous system and immune system cannot be ruled out in children and pets. Long-term exposure to herbicides on lawns has been linked to cancer in dogs. And if kids and pets are on the lawn you can bet they are tracking the pesticides into the home where the residues can last longer. One day is not long enough to stay off the lawn as a recent study showed that herbicide levels did not really drop off until three days. Staying off the lawn for three days may not be easy in an active household. The best advice is to avoid pesticide lawn treatments and start converting over to organic lawn care. Many schools and town parks have switched away from pesticides to organic care with the trend slowly catching on with homeowners as well.

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Dr. Gary Ginsberg is a public health toxicologist in Connecticut and a lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health. He has written a book geared toward the general public, “What’s Toxic, What's Not,” and also has a website, whatstoxic.com, to answer questions about chemicals found in consumer products and in our homes.

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The Yale School of Public Health invites you to submit questions for Dr. Ginsberg as part of this recurring monthly series. Contact us through Facebook or by e-mailing Michael Greenwood at michael.greenwood@yale.edu