The Safer Choice
How To Avoid Hazardous Home, Garden, Community and Food Use Pesticides

Pesticides are widely used in homes and communities without complete public knowledge about the harm that they cause to children, pets and the environment. There are alternatives to pesticides for managing insects, rodents and weeds effectively without exposing your family to harmful toxic chemicals.

• The Safer Choice brochure. This brochure focuses on what you can do to manage your home, school and community without poisoning your children, families, pets, and the environment. Download or order from the Beyond Pesticides online store.
• Healthy Homes and Communities presentation. Powerpoint presentation for individuals, community groups and leaders interested in achieving a pest and pesticide-free living environment. Download or order from the Beyond Pesticides online store.
• Safe, Pest-Free Apartment doorknob hanger. Your building doesn't need to use
  toxic pesticides.

Children and Pesticides

• Children and Pesticides Don't Mix. Children are espeically vulnerable to pesticides. This factsheet cites scientific studies linking pesticides to children's health issues.
• Pesticides in Our Homes and Schools: Are they dangerous to our children? Bi-fold brochure on the dangers and alternatives to pesticides used in schools.
• Webinar: Effective Policies to Reduce Exposures to Pesticides in Schools. Presenters include Janet Hurley, TX School IPM Specialist; Michel Oriel, Research Scientist, CA DPR; Sherry Glick, School IPM Expert, US EPA; Jay Feldman, Executive Director, Beyond Pesticides.
• Asthma, Pesticides and Children: What you should know to protect your family. Download the color brochure version or the longer cited version (also En Español:el folleto a color, el folleto con citaciones).

Food Choices and Diet

• Feeding Your Family Organic...Affordably. This bi-fold brochure offers solutions on how to shop and prepare healthy organic food for you and your family without breaking the bank.
• The Cost of Organic Food. Organic food may appear to be more expensive at the retail level, however there are many hidden costs associated with chemically-intensive agriculture. "The Real Story on the Affordability of Organic Food," from the Fall 2011 issue of Pesticides and You takes a close look at the cost of organic food versus its chemically-intensive conventional counterpart.
• Organic Food: Eating with a Conscience. This database shows how our food choices have a direct effect on not just our health, but the health of our planet and those who grow and harvest what we eat.

Pesticide Free Zones

• Pesticide Free Zones in Your Community. Download this bi-fold brochure for information on how to create safe, pesticide-free places in your community, whether its at the municipal, park, school or backyard level. For more information, see our webpage, Pesticide Free Yards and Parks.
• Pesticide Free Zone Signs. Show your neighbors that pesticide-free lawns, gardens and parks are important for health and the environment (download the owner's manual). You can also order "Want a green lawn safe for children and pets?" doorknob hangers to get the word out in your community.

Pesticides and Health Care Facilities

• Healthy Health Care Facilies. Hospitals have a special obligation to demonstrate leadership in instituting effective and safer pest management in keeping with the medical profession's basic tenet of "first, do no harm."
• Webinar: Healthy Hospitals: Managing Facilities Without Toxic Pesticides Through IPM. Presenters include Jay Feldman, Beyond Pesticides; Tom Green, IPM Institute; and, Lionel Weeks, Practice Green Health.
• Information for New Moms. Are you a new parent or are you planning to be one soon? See our video, Protecting Your New Baby from Pesticides (en Español), and brochure, Make your home safe for baby (en Español), with tips on food choices and safer pest management, specifically designed for new moms.

Bed Bugs

• Bed Bugs: Don't Panic. The recent bed bug resurgence across the U.S. has people taking desperate measures to eradicate these tenacious bloodsuckers, with some relying on dangerous pesticides and fly-by-night exterminators. These measures pose more dangers than any perceived short-term benefit.
• Bed Bug Factsheet for Homeowners and Tenants. While there is no magic bullet solution to bed bug eradication, there are many ways to effectively control them without the use of dangerous chemical pesticides.
• Bed Bugs in Public Housing. A factsheet for building managers, this brochure discusses guidelines for prevention, monitoring, and intervention. Intended to be printed on 8.5x14 paper.
  
  

Other Resources

• Find a Service Provider - Beyond Pesticides' Safety Source for Pest Management
• Do It Yourself Pest Management - Beyond Pesticides' Alternatives Factsheets
• Eating with a Conscience - Food guide explains why organic is the right choice.
• Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database - documents wide range of diseases –asthma, learning disabilities, birth defects, diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and cancer– linked to pesticides.
• Pesticide Gateway - Health and environmental effects, studies, links and more
• How-To Factsheets - from organizing a campaign to how to talk to your neighbors about pesticides
• Policies - state and local school policies, state IPM policies, local lawn and landscape policies
• State Pages - state and local information, including groups, government contacts and more
• Safer Choice campaign information - Children and Schools, Lawns and Landscapes, Organic Food, Mosquito Management

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