# Pesticide signs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 2, 2002, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pesticide-signs/101492 "2002-04-02T23:06:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ASBEntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@ASBEntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASBEntropy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pesticide-signs/101492/1 "2002-04-02T23:06:03Z")
Get with the program, Cecil. Nobody is going to buy those little warning signs if they don’t have to–believe me, the regulations requiring them have had a heck of a time getting through most state regulatory programs. I live in NY and work for the Department of Environmental Conservation. Those signs are required because of the marked increase in allergic reactions by chemically sensitive people that are caused by pesticides being applied to lawns without notification of the neighbors, passers-by, or residents (in the case of commerial properties like apartment buildings). Pesticides are fine: When mixed in proper proportions–often not the case; When applied in proper concentrations–often a problem with untrained applicators or old equipment; When everyone who comes by is an adult, average person who does not have asthma, chemical sensitivities, or otherwise compromised immune systems—yeah, we know we’re all healthy and average. So the little signs help to keep the great majority of us safer. Don’t knock it. And I agree–the folks who don’t scoop the poop deserve to be scared off. :wally ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pesticide-signs/101492/2 "2002-04-02T23:57:41Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, and thank thee for posting thy comment. Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site. To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in thy post (make sure there is a space **before** and **after** the text of the URL). Cecil’s column can be found on-line at this link: [Are “this lawn chemically treated” signs a scam? (12-Sep-1975)](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_026.html) * * * moderator, «[**Comments on Cecil’s Columns**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1)» ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pesticide-signs/101492/3 "2002-04-03T00:01:15Z")
Thanks for your expertise, ASBEntropy. Were those signs already required in 1975, when the column was originally written? ---
**Author:** ![dogsbollocks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7bcc69/32.png) [@dogsbollocks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogsbollocks)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pesticide-signs/101492/4 "2002-04-03T14:35:55Z")
The truth of the matter is you are all wrong. The signs are a form of optical illusion discovered in the late 1960s, during an investigation that portuguese spies were hiding messages between the lines of Irish: Portuguese dictionaries, during the war of the buttons. When certain text was typed on a paricular sized piece of paper i.e: The pages of the dictionary, speciallly trained animals, such as a pit bull terrier or other flatulent animals, could interpret the optical Illusion and in essence read between the lines. The message was then compressed into a function of the bowel, which could be easily translated by those fiendish portuguese spies. The technology has been in development for over fourty years and the patent was recently bought by the INTO, which applied the technology to signs which read, in dog, “Stay off the grass”. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pesticide-signs/101492/5 "2002-04-03T15:22:36Z")
The column can also be found on pages 26-27 of Cecil Adams’ book «[_The Straight Dope (1984; reissued 1986, 1998)_](https://securesite.chireader.com/cgi-bin/dopestore/buystuff.bat#tsd)». ---
**Author:** ![leechbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@leechbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leechbabe)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pesticide-signs/101492/6 "2002-04-05T00:36:00Z")
Regarding the signs, whilst I was only one month old at the time the column was written I do have some current info on their usage in Oz. Generally if you see a lawn down here with a similar sign on it the odds are its being watered with recycled sewage. Although the recycled waste products are not considered fit for household use, certain groups (such as parks and big industry) can get it piped in to water their lawns with. This was particularly popular in South Australia where water can become very scarce during the summer months. ---
**Author:** ![ASBEntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@ASBEntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASBEntropy)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pesticide-signs/101492/7 "2002-04-05T18:55:28Z")
OOPS! Mea culpa. I didn’t look at the date when the original column was written. No, the legal requirements for these signs appeared in state laws and regulations within the last few years. New York’s regulations were finalized last year, 2001:( ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pesticide-signs/101492/8 "2002-04-05T22:24:19Z")
Don’t worry, you’re not the first to point out that an old column is missing up-to-date information. Actually I think reading the old columns is interesting, like a snapshot in time of what the world used to be like 20 years ago.