By Gilbert Ross, M.D.
Posted: Thursday, October 19, 2000

LETTER
Publication Date: October 19, 2000

To the Editor:

The woeful condition of Los Angeles' public school playgrounds is a predictable result of the nonsensical banning of safe and effective herbicides in that city ("Tangled Up in Green," page A1, Oct.5).

There is no reliable scientific evidence to link the approved use of herbicides or pesticides to any human disease. Three decades of use should be sufficient evidence for the lack of adverse health effects of these chemicals. While rates of asthma (in the inner cities) and attention-deficit disorder have increased, simplistically blaming chemicals, rather than increased detection ability, or increased insect infestations, results in the scenes described in Ms. Warren's story: playgrounds resembling jungles, dangerous to all who attempt to enjoy them.

As for the "rising rates of childhood cancer": this is a figment of the hysteria which provoked the school board to invoke the ban. Rates of childhood—and adult—cancer have been declining in the U.S. for the past several years, according to the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute.

The economic effects are clear as well, although not as important to the schoolchildren deprived of their venue for healthy physical activity. This factor, plus the quality-of-life impact, demonstrate that there is always a trade-off when useful products are banned based on pseudo-science.

Source Notes:  
Published in Wall Street Journal—October 19, 2000