by Ron Traver
Do you realize that the household products under your sink or in your laundry room with labels that read, “Disinfects, eliminates, deodorizes and kills”, etc. are very possibly registered pesticides? If you will look at the labels of four products which I happen to have in my own house, you will see that Lysol spray disinfectant, Clorox, Lysol toilet bowl cleaner and Vani-sol cleanser are Registered Pesticides: the labels carry EPA Registration Numbers! Vani-sol displays the skull and crossbones Poison Symbol! These products are available at your local grocery store.
Point this out the next time someone confronts you with the negative aspects of the aerial application of EPA approved agricultural materials (which is what I prefer to call our ag chemicals and pesticides.) Point out that very few of our material carry the poison label. Ask them if they realize how many gallons of products like Vani-sol, with the poison label, might be used everyday. To really make a point with that person, ask them if they realize that their bare behinders sit on those toilets cleaned with those pesticides! And that those pesticides are flushed down the drains and into the sewer systems. Ask them where does their waste water lagoons drain when they are full. Ask them if ducks and other aquatic bird swim in the lagoons.
Then ask them why they think that agricultural products are the ones polluting the waters! The answer to that question is “Because that is what we are reading in the papers and hearing on the news.”
You can start recruiting help with you new goal by educating your customers, at grower’s meeting and with displays at your business. I gave away some “pesticides” as door prizes at a recent grower’s meeting. I went to a local grocery store prior to the meeting and purchased the above named products. I made a few remarks about user friendly pesticides, then gave them away. The feedback? The results? GREAT!!! Two days later I went into the bank of that small community and was asked, “What kind of meeting did we have the other night?” The bank employees take their coffee breaks at a small cafe were the farmers gather.
Ron Travers is the past-president of the South Dakota Agricultural Aviation Association.
Reprint permission given by AgAir Update, P.O. Box 850, Perry, GA 31069 - an international agricultural aviation publication.
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