On 15 October 2022, the department of Roads at the Cockburn City Council will initiate spraying Glyphosate, Slasher, and added Surfactants to the whole of Cockburn. Dept of Roads engage contractors who spray these chemicals around our streets, kerbs, roads and homes twice per year. The chemical use is controversial, for many it is considered a severe and unnecessary health hazard. If that is the case for you the council has a NO SPRAY REGISTER, so if you do not want these sprays at your home then call customer service (08 9411 3444) or email Cockburn City Council asap and tell them to place you on the NO SPRAY REGISTER. This means that you will be formally registered for no spraying, and you will have 2 yellow triangles painted at the front of your property (on the road) for spray contractors to see. When the contractors drive around on their motorised buggy using the spray, the triangles (and register) indicate not to spray at the front of your house. Unfortunately, there can be spray drift, but if you and your neighbours are on the list it could limit the chemical load in your street and could limit or stop the glyphosate from getting into your home or garden. You then stay on the no Spray register unless you advise the City otherwise; that is, you don’t have to keep updating the request. If you wish to get on the register act quickly because I am advised that the contractors are planning to go about Cockburn in the next couple of weeks to apply new markers and touch up the faded yellow triangles already painted on the kerbs of the NO SPRAY Houses.
This is no trivial thing, while there are claims glyphosate is safe depending on how it is used, there is also much research to the contrary, that reports the link Glyphosate has to cancer and neurological conditions.
- In 2015, The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Agency for research on cancer has classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
- According to Mutation Research (July-Sept 2019) exposure to glyphosate is associated with increased risk of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in humans.
- The Permaculture College of Australia reports the toxicity of Glyphosate to humans, plants and animals. That glyphosate is absorbed into soil particles, remains for years, and is highly toxic to the bacteria and fungi in soils that is essential to plant health. It is reported to be toxic to insects, earth worms, bees, frogs and to transfer from targeted weeds to trees and increasing diseases in non-target plants. Glyphosate is reported to be toxic to humans and a risk factor for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and that the surfactants added to the glyphosate to make the poison penetrate the soils and bind to plants, intensify the glyphosate in living organisms.
- USRTK, a non-profit investigative research group show that glyphosate infiltrates the brain (Journal of neuroinflammation (July 2022) ,
Some councils have trialled steam in place of glyphosate, the City of Stirling has found the use of steam to control weeds in the City has been proven to be effective But, while glyphosate is still allowed to be used in our community, should this concern you then this register seems the only current available method for limiting your exposure.
Pesticide-Free Towns – success stories – Pesticide Action Network UK (pan-uk.org)
