Quebec on Pesticides

On March 5, the province of Quebec adopted North America’s most stringent restrictions on the use of pesticides. The new Pesticide Management Code immediately prohibits the use of the most harmful insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides on public, semipublic, and municipal green spaces except golf courses. By April 2006, this prohibition will extend to all private and commercial lawns, and golf courses will be required to submit triennial pesticide reduction plans to the Quebec Ministry of the Environment. The code also establishes minimum distances from watercourses for pesticide application, and by April 2004 will outlaw the sale of fertilizer-pesticide mixtures; other restrictions on the sale of pesticides go into effect in 2005 and 2006. The new code applies to the insecticides Carbaryl, Dicofol, and Malathion; the fungicides Benomyl, Captan, Chlorothalonil, Iprododione, Quintizene, and Thiophanate-methyl; and the herbicides Chlorthal-dimethyl and all forms of 2,4-D, MCPA, and Mecoprop. For more information, visit

www.menv.gouv.qc.ca and select “Pesticide Management Code.”