| The fresh air and green grass on your day at the | | | | women. |
| golf course may not be as healthy as you think, | | | | The chemicals applied to golf courses not only are |
| due to toxic pesticides. More than a ton of | | | | toxic to golfers and the people who take care of |
| pesticides and chemical poisons may be applied to | | | | the courses. Also, rain may carry these toxic |
| your favorite golf course each year to ward off | | | | chemicals to ponds, streams, and lakes, where |
| insects and weeds. Learn the health risks of this | | | | they can harm other kinds of wildlife and pollute |
| pesticide exposure and find out how toxic green | | | | our underground water supplies. |
| can go safely green to create a healthy | | | | What can we do to make golf courses safer? |
| relationship between golf lovers and our links. | | | | Golf courses can be built in ways that leave more |
| What are some health risks of pesticide exposure | | | | natural land for the animals and cause less |
| on golf courses? | | | | pollution. |
| A medical study conducted by professor B. C. | | | | Plants that soak up toxic chemicals can be |
| Kross at the University of Iowa in 1994 revealed | | | | installed on borders of golf courses to prevent |
| that golf course superintendents were more likely | | | | chemical runoff into our ecosystems. |
| to die of lung cancer, brain cancer, non-Hodgkins | | | | Golf courses can go green and organic. |
| lymphoma, cancer of the large intestine or | | | | Fortunately, there is a safe, effective alternative |
| prostrate cancer. The high cancer rate is due to | | | | for each chemical poison currently used on golf |
| toxic chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides and | | | | courses. |
| chemical fertilizers used to keep the fairways lush | | | | Fellow golf lovers who know these facts may ask |
| and green. | | | | course managers to care for their golf course by |
| Regular golfers, residents of homes on golf | | | | using non-toxic methods that support the good |
| courses and grounds workers also have higher | | | | health of everyone who plays, works and lives |
| risks of developing lung, brain and other cancers. | | | | nearby. |
| According to one autopsy report in an Asian | | | | Why am I so concerned about a toxic relationship |
| health journal, an avid male golfer had died from | | | | with our environment? |
| exposure to the fungicide, chlorothalonil, used on | | | | As a young child, I breathed in DDT each week |
| the golf course where he became ill immediately | | | | during the summers as I ran behind the magic |
| after a round of golf in 1993. | | | | fogging truck that sprayed DDT to kill mosquitoes. |
| In 1991, the Japan Medical and Dental Practitioner | | | | No one tried to stop us. No one knew the |
| reported that nearly 40 percent of the agricultural | | | | long-term health risks of DDT exposure when |
| poisoning cases they handled involved employees | | | | they were using this "canon" to kill mosquitoes. I'm |
| of golf courses, amateur golfers or people living | | | | still recovering from side effects of my childhood |
| adjacent to the links. | | | | exposure to DDT. |
| What are some other health risks of pesticide | | | | Now that medical studies repeatedly provide |
| exposure in humans and wildlife? | | | | evidence of the health risks of even low-level |
| Medical Researchers from Mayo Clinic reported | | | | exposure to pesticides, we have incentive to |
| that pesticide exposure increases the risk of | | | | create a healthy relationship with our environment |
| developing Parkinson's Disease in men. Cornell | | | | in our golf courses, our farmland, and in our own |
| University researchers found pesticides in 100 | | | | back yard. |
| percent of cancerous breast tissue they tested in | | | | |