It’s kind of funny that Rep. Andy Fleischmann, a West Hartford Democrat, is a leader in the push to keep pesticides off school playing fields.
I mean, you can barely drive down any residential street in town from May to October without running into a truck pumping chemicals onto yet another tiny West Hartford lawn.
Apparently, we want our kids to be safe from pesticides on the schoolyard because they get plenty of the stuff at home and we don’t want to push it too far, or those grandkids we hope for someday will look Ralph Wiggum on “The Simpsons.”
One of the bills that sailed through Fleischmann’s Education Committee extends a ban on using pesticides that already exists for elementary schools. Middle schools would be covered, too.
Another bill would include high schools as well.
“Children who play sports and games on school fields should not have to deal with exposure to toxic pesticides and herbicides,” Fleischmann told reporters.
Personally, I hate all this toxic crud that gets sprayed all over everyone’s lawns. I’d be fine with banning its use everywhere except in limited cases to protect public health. But I’m kind of a nut that way.
But it’s still amusing to see a West Hartford lawmaker out front on this, because there’s a lot of green involved in spreading chemicals on our yards here.
The West Hartford Blog 