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89% OF MONTREALERS WILLING TO CEASE PESTICIDE USE
 QUEBEC ANTI-PESTICIDE LOBBYIST CALLS TREND "HEARTENING"
-CAPS BULLETIN

Montrealers may not be concerned about local pollution, but they're ready to say NO to pesticides, notes an SOM Poll commissioned by the Montreal Gazette.

Conducted between Dec 13 and Dec. 20, 2000, the survey revealed less than one third of citizens had any significant concern about local environment or pollution issues. However, the number leaped to nearly 89 percent when asked if they would be willing to "stop using pesticides in and around their homes." Citizens for Alternatives to Pesticides (CAP) founder, Merryl Hammond, Ph.D calls this news "heartening."

"It's good to know that people are so open... But I don't think not using pesticides should be a voluntary decision, period. It should be legislated."

"People have come a long way in the last few years" she revealed to the Gazette, "the prevailing attitude used to be complacency because of the notion the federal government was monitoring everything closely and would order products off store shelves if they proved hazardous to one's health."

"It's good to know that people are so open, because that was one of my concerns about the (municipal) mergers," Hammond said from her home in Baie d'Urfe. "But I don't think not using pesticides should be a voluntary decision, period. It should be legislated."

She also referenced the many suburbs in Quebec and across Canada that have followed Hudson, Quebec's lead in banning cosmetic-use pesticides in their municipalities. Hudson passed a bylaw in 1991 that outlawed such pesticide use out of concern for the "general welfare" for its residents.