An article by Tom Christopher in this month's House & Garden (no link yet) begins as such:

"As a gardener with Canadian grandparents on both sides, I can tell you this: there's more than hockey players, bacon and bargain pharmaceuticals coming south across teh border. There's also a new onsciusness, one that may at long last cleanse our home landscapes of chemical pesticides so that our children and pets can play outdoors without exposure to carcinogens adn neurotoxins.

All across Canada, communities have been passing ordinances to prohibit what they call the "cosmetic" use of pesticides--the application of insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides to enhance purely ornamental plantings such as flowers, shrubbery, and expecially lawns. To date, osme 96 municipalities, including Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, home to 35 percent of teh nation's inhabitants, have signed on. It's a full-fledged revolution, but because teh battles have been, in typical Canadian fashion, understated and pragmatic, few in the United States have been aware of it."

The article goes on to outline the the dangers of pesticide use and the battle for approval of these ordinances. It talks about the chemical companies, namely Spraytech and Chemlawn trying to block them (don't know why as "natural" pest control is initially more expensive anyway) and enacting laws in the US in an attempt to preempt these types of laws here.

Interesting read and lists a few websites for those interested.
Northeast Organic Farming Association (Conn) Nofa.org
Beyond Pesticides (DC) info@beyondpesticides.org
Ecological Landscaping Association (Mass) ecolandscaping.org