"John Bachman" wrote in message
...


This is all reasonable advice, but realize this:

You're giving it to someone who is completely in the dark, and not just
with
regard to gardening. So, it's important to point out garden chemicals have
not been and can never be correctly tested for safety. I'm sure you're
aware
of that.


Nonsense. If the material is used in strict compliance to the
instructions on the label (and it should not be used in any other way)
safety is assured. Those instructions include dosages, personal
protective equipment requirements and minimum re-entry intervals.

Nonsense.

1) Use the pharmaceutical analogy. The only way to assure the safety of a
new drug is to test it on the target population, and even then, long term
effects can only be determined by waiting and seeing. Yard chemicals cannot
be tested in this way, at least not within the morals of this society. The
chemical companies themselves say that animal testing is irrelevant. Since
they cannot be tested on people, safety cannot be determined.

Note: Somewhere on the web, there *is* mention of one round of tests in
which an agricultural chemical

2) In the early 1970s, the chemical industry purchased legislation which
exempted a long list of so-called "inert ingredients" from what little
testing is done to begin with.
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/lawn...ts&figures.htm This is a
summary for the layman, but with cites. This link will provide you with more
than enough other information to keep you busy for awhile:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ts&btnG=Search

The "inert" ingredients include quite a few things which are known, beyond
dispute, to be harmful to humans in some way. Toluene, for instance.

I'm not disputing what you say, in terms of what works on which pests, but I
do think it's irresponsible to suggest the use of ANY chemical to a person
who has not demonstrated the least bit of knowledge in terms of which bugs
he's trying to deal with. That, to me, is a prerequisite, and a crucial one.