Time to grow your grass .... Old School

As of April 22nd (Earth Day) Ontario has banned the cosmetic use of pesticides.
According to City News this means “more than 80 ingredients and 250 products can no longer be used or sold for cosmetic reasons”.
Great! The fewer chemicals in the environment the better. However, the wording of the law left me thinking...what exactly makes a pesticide cosmetic or non-cosmetic? It’s not like pesticides are classified in the store in these categories.
Surprisingly, it took a little bit of searching to find out what is considered a non-cosmetic pesticide. Apparently, either not too many people thought the wording needed explanation, or they didn’t care to share the answer with the rest of us.
So here it is. Non-cosmetic use of pesticides is when it is being used for farming, forestry, or health and safety reasons (controlling or repelling mosquitoes that could carry West Nile).
Golf courses are also excluded from the ban as long as they meet certain environmental conditions.
Bizarre wording or not, the law has not passed without controversy.
News articles, letters to the editor and opinion pieces have been written clamming the law was only passed because of pressure from the Canadian Cancer Society, and that there is no direct evidence that links human diseases to pesticide use.
Direct evidence or not, less pesticide use and restrictions on what chemicals are being used can only be a good thing. Even if by chance were not affected by these chemicals our environment is, and anything we can do to clean up our environment is a good thing.
Yes, people will have to start thinking of more ecologically friendly ways of protecting their plants and growing perfectly green lawns, but the less chemicals we are exposing ourselves to the better.