Let's have kids dig up dandelions
How much do we hate dandelions? Do we hate them enough to spray them with the pesticide Roundup on Doubleday Field in Cooperstown? Why did New York state pass laws recently prohibiting the use of pesticides on school grounds and day care centers?
True, Doubleday Field is not a school facility; however, young players do use this field. Furthermore, the brook that flows under the bleachers where Roundup is being sprayed empties into the lake and the lake empties into the Susquehanna River.
Two Swedish oncologists have found a link between exposure to Roundup and a form of cancer called non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Though cancer doesn't pop up in the human body as rapidly as dandelions pop up in the playing field, children can carry the effects of the chemical into adulthood, where, according to Robyn Gilden, a University of Maryland scientist, the effects of Roundup have been associated with higher rates of birth defects, hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder.
Why do we have to take chances with chemicals designed to kill when it is simpler to let kids earn a few dollars to dig up the dandelions?
Hilda Wilcox
Cooperstown
