Your lawn may be killing you ­— and many other creatures

You know those little yellow flags stuck on lawns in your neighborhood? Think of them as tombstones.

Those markers signify a recent application of pesticides, a broad category of chemicals designed to kill insects, weeds and fungi. There’s some evidence that they can kill animals and people, too.

Roundup, one of the most common herbicides, has been banned or restricted in some states and countries due to fears of its impact on human health and the environment.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is listed by the World Health Organization as a probable carcinogen.

Pesticides like this one are being applied with abandon on Long Island’s lawns, endangering the Island’s only aquifer while threatening the health of its human residents as well as the birds, bees and household pets that share our biosphere.

“Several types of cancer, immune-response deficiencies, neurological diseases and birth defects have been associated with exposure to lawn chemicals,” a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency publication states.

Suffolk County registered by far the heaviest doses of pesticides used among New York counties in 2021 — 6.5 million pounds, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. Nassau ranked as the sixth most chemically doused county, with 1.6 million pounds of pesticides used to keep homeowners’ grass weed- and bug-free.

In reporting on the DEC finding, Newsday observed, “Far too much pesticide is poured to attain lawns that could be mistaken for putting greens, with far too little concern for the environment, experts say.”

Research shows clear links between herbicide exposure and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and bladder cancer in humans, Lauren Trepanier, professor of internal medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, says. Both of those cancers are also common in dogs, notes the Human Society of the United States, which included Trepanier’s comment in a report last year.

“Rates of lymphoma in pets of pesticide users are significantly higher than occurrences in the pets of non-chemical users,” the Mid-America Research Council added.

Pretty much no living things — except lawn grass — co-exist well with pesticides. Butterflies, lightning bugs and honeybees, along with every other type of insect, are killed by chemicals that are advertised as fatal to mosquitoes.

In fact, scientists say we’re in the throes of an “insect apocalypse.” And if present death rates continue, they add, there won’t be any insects left alive a century from now. That will be bad news not only for the bugs themselves, but also for birds, flowers and food. Insects are responsible for pollinating 75 percent of all flowering plants, including about one-third of the crops consumed by humans.

Birds are experiencing just as precipitous a population decline as bugs. A study published in 2019 by Science, a research journal, found that 3 billion North American birds have died off since 1970 — a loss of nearly 30 percent of their total numbers.
Pesticides kill birds both directly and indirectly. Birds ingest poisonous chemicals when they mistake pesticide granules for food, the New York Audubon Society points out. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute adds, “Birds that eat insects are literally at a loss when insecticides cause a drop in the number of insect prey available, especially when they have young to feed.”

But here’s some good news: The damage pesticides are doing to suburban environments, and the entire planet, can be greatly mitigated if homeowners like those on Long Island make a simple choice. They can replace their lawns (which are pretty to look at but otherwise useless) with shrubs, trees and native plant species that are well adapted to the local climate and pests. And they can save lots of time and money as well if they give Mother Nature the chance to reproduce benignly.

Kevin J. Kelley was a congressional staff member in the 1980s, and is a retired journalist and journalism professor who worked for newspapers in New York, Vermont and Kenya and taught at St. Michael’s College in Vermont. He lives in Atlantic Beach.