Golfdom, June 2011
Your secret turf weapons Healthy turf and exceptional playing conditions are your passion Optimize your water usage on the golf course with Becker Underwoods highquality performance driven soil wetting agents Ask your distributor about Affi nity and Capacity wetting agents Both available in three formulations liquid pellet and granular 800 232 5907 www beckerunderwood com Affi nity and Capacity are trademarks of Becker Underwood Inc Ames IA 26 Golfdom June 2011 Taking Aim Continued from page 25 new approaches that might lessen our use of synthetics This last point should not be taken as a condemnation of the synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that we use The risks we take in using them are truly very low but why not reduce these risks if possible The most necessary facts relate to the potential toxicity chronic effects and negative environmental impact of the products we use How toxic are the chemicals were using The answer to that question is best derived from the LD50 rating of each active ingredient The rating is determined through animal testing to determine how many milligrams mg of active ingredient per kilogram kg of body weight is required to kill 50 percent of a test population The lower the number the more toxic the substance The most toxic substances used in maintaining golf courses are insecticides and nematicides Products like Nemacur no longer available for sale have an LD50 rating of 6 That means it only takes 6 mg kg of the active ingredient to kill 50 percent of the test population Its obviously very toxic stuff In comparison an insecticide that is commonly We are not out to cause harm to any part of our natural surroundings In fact many of us love our jobs because it puts us in contact with the nature that we enjoy used on golf courses today for the control of grubs is Merit Its active ingredient has an LD50 of 424 mg kg Thats a substantial difference As for herbicides and fungicides the more toxic ones are 2 4 D at 375mg kg and Subdue Maxx at 669mg kg respectively Contrast that with these numbers Caffeines LD50 is 250mg kg Aspirins LD50 is 780mg kg The active ingredient in the coffee you may drink everyday is more toxic than the vast majority of the chemicals that are commonly used on golf courses The stuff that you take for headaches is only a little bit less toxic than some of the more toxic chemicals that are commonly used on golf courses and is a lot more toxic than some of them To refine this point even more it would take 100 cups of coffee to reach a lethal dose This is a substance that is ingested orally by many of us on a daily basis One of these various pesticides applied at 1 pound of active ingredient a ludicrously high rate in terms of modern products per acre would be equal to spreading a teaspoon of sugar over 5000 bowls of cereal
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