Question from Donna
What are your thoughts on the risks of living close to a golf course (i.e. exposure to air-borne residue and chemicals leaching into well water) ? What is a safe distance to live from a golf course?
Debra’s Answer
Beyond Pesticides has compiled a comprehensive resource for information on golf courses and their impact on health and the environment. Look there for more information on the dangers of the pesticides used.
I think the answer to your question about a safe distance to live from a golf course varies a lot with the golf course, the pesticides used and how deep your water table is.
I’ve read studies that say to live at least 300 feet from a pollution source, such as a highway, gas station, or dry cleaners, so I would think a golf course would be the same. That’s the length of a football field.
But air is moving all the time, and pesticides can easily be carried on a breeze.
In an urban or suburban area it’s difficult to find a spot that is more than 300 feet from one pollution source or another.
I live two miles from a small golf course, about 6 blocks by 6 blocks square. I have no idea what pesticides they use or don’t use. I’ve not noticed any problems with pesticide drift from this golf course.
My mom lived within a mile of a golf course for several years after her divorce. I came to live with her after she got diagnosed with a severe auto-immune illness and got weaker each month. She was dizzy. She got headaches and then pain. A lot of joint and head pain. We did not connect the golf course with her illness, because she was what we considered far from the golf course. Then I got sick after five months of taking care of her. I got strange things that never happened before. Like big dark bags under my eyes each morning. Headaches. Bad headaches. A lot of other pain and problems that I didn’t ever have before. My dog, a black lab got weak and would sometimes fall. He was only 6 yrs. Another doctor in our area diagnosed that I had some sort of auto-immune condition. Maybe lupus, maybe something else. Definitely kidney and liver problems. We sold the house almost 2 years ago, and I am all better. My mom died this past year with kidney and liver failure. Her body just shut down at 59. They said the chemicals at the nearby course were safe. However, I got a lawyer for my massively outrageous bills. He found that 18 others within 2 miles of the golf course have the same problems, and they find it all around the country at many times the rate of those more than 5 miles from thee same courses. It depends on winds, whether you have hills around, how dry it is. All of that. Stay away from golf courses, and don’t ever think a few miles is safe. We found out that even the safe chemicals require specially licensed professionals to apply them and are not approved for use by the public. The normal ones are even worse. There are many lawsuits now, but people need to know the dangers of being within even miles of any golf course, even if your water is safe, the air is not!
In recent months, I’ve become more attentive to chemical health hazards due to use and applications of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. I’ve suspected for many years, the cancer that caused the death of my wife’s cousin was a result of his job as a golf course grounds keeper from his exposure to the materials he had to handle. He worked at the course for about 20 years, meeting his end at 41. His family said he had lung cancer as a result of smoking. That’s understandable, but succumbing to it at such a young age is unusual.
A man who was a neighbor for many years, moved far away, to a house across from a golf course. It seemed to be ideal for him, since he liked the sport and liked to walk. About 4 years ago, around the age of 85, his nephew called to let me know that he was in a nursing home with issues related to Parkinson’s. Dizziness was causing him to fall frequently. I did know his brother died from complications from Parkinson’s, so it wouldn’t be unusual for him to be affected by the same problem. I remember talking to him on the phone soon after he entered the nursing home and he was not having speech issues. A few weeks ago we visited with him. He didn’t seem to have issues related to Parkinson’s such as shaking, but he was having great difficulty with speech and memory.
The reason I found this site was because I was searching for information on old golf courses having a second life as a farm. An article in a local magazine about a newly developed hops farm on the site of a previous golf course caught my attention. With my experience with possible health issues of people exposed to golf course chemicals, I got to wondering about the safety of food produced in these soils. It would seem food grown on soils previously heavily treated with herbicides and pesticides would be of great concern to anyone growing crops on it, and especially a concern of anyone consuming food harvested from those lands.
I coimpletely agree with you. This is akin to tearing out old orchards that had heavy pesticide applications and building subdivisions on the land. I lived in such a subdivision as a child. Many cases of cancer on my block, including my mother, who died at age 51. I became chemically sensitive at age 24. Years later a health practiioner asked me if I had grown up in a subdivision that had previously been an orchard. She had diagnosed me with a copper imbalance from the pesticides used on the orchard that wasn’t even there any more.
So yes, we should be vigilant of what toxics may be in the soil from previous land uses. It’s not something that can be tracked with regards to consumer products, but definitely on the list of what should be questioned when choosing a home or placement of a farm.
I live on a golf course and have developed many health issues.
I wonder if living here is causing these issues.
I think it’s likely.
I lived on a golf course in Southern California. There was about 25 houses on street. We are right in the middle of the golf course. So some of the houses in the back side of the street would get sprayed and the other side of the street or get sprayed from the other side of the golf course. If that makes any sense. So I’m saying this I think we got double sprayed. I know of 12 cases of people having cancer and 25 houses. At the time I had cancer two houses next to me both ladies had cancer and right across the street from me at at three houses two of the houses were affected by cancer. So basically six houses 5 people had cancer at same time. I was a young healthy female. Only 45. I develop ovarian cancer thank God they caught it at stage 1. But I moved from there. I have my white cell count down when I live there and it was very low. Now that I’ve been living somewhere else not here Golf Community my white cell count is high and healthy again. I tried to speak to the golf course. The only thing that they would tell me was all the fungicides pesticides and herbicides. We’re all proved to be sprayed on crops. I said yes but no one lives right on a crop field. That’s why golf superintendent job is one of deadliest jobs to have. The usually all died of cancer. I don’t think you have that much to worry about if you live on the east coast. But if you live in warm climate areas all year around. I believe you should move
I live right next to golf course, have done so for 7 years, and only now do I consider the risk factor. I have a persistant abdominal pain. Colonoscopy says there is nothing there. Do you know if thre is a golf course toxicology test that can be performed, I dont want to become paranoid, nor do I wan to ignore the health risk.
A boy 3 houses from mine, also next to the golf course, has leukemia. My house is right next to a golf course, my garden is full of balls. Thanks for the help
I don’t know of a golf course toxicology test, but if you live next to a golf course you are being exposed to many pesticides if the golf course is not specifically using nontoxic methods to maintain the lawn.
I would just go ask them when they are using. And then you can look up the toxicity of each pesticide.
Thanks Debra!
I was scheduled to look at a house one mile from a golf course and when I got out of the car I immediately started having reactions; muscle weakness, dizziness, brain fog slurred speech. I think distance first and foremost depends on how sensitive one is and then which way the wind is blowing. Mara
Here’s something I read in a book entitled Pandora’s Poisons by Dr. Joe Thornton, who is now a professor of green chemistry at Oregon State University….pesticides found in the Great Lakes back when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s were pesticides used in the growing of cotton mostly, from the South. So these were major sources of pollution that degraded the quality of Lake Erie, the lake I was around as a child as well as the other lakes.
This fouling of the Great Lakes by southern pesticides has linked with the regular pattern of winds…blowing out of the south, due north, and once polluting particulates of pesticides hit the colder air, they left the air stream and dropped down into the lakes. Pandora’s Poisons is a book all about organochlorines, things made with or having chlorine as a part of their substance.
Organochlorines include pesticides, plastics, paper, dry cleaning chemicals and more.
Even the Am. Public Health Assn several years ago released a statement calling for the gradual phasing out of organochlorines. Challenging yet accessible read, it was. Regularly occurring streams of wind really do matter. Lake Erie is no where near the south where the cotton was growing and being treated with the pesticides that eventually ended up near Buffalo!
COMMENT FROM DEBRA:
I agree that pesticides can be carried by winds many hundreds and thousands of miles and that they need to be phased out. The best thing we could do is encourage local golf courses to not use these chemicals. There are programs already designed for golf courses that eliminate pesticides. Golf courses just need to know that local citizens are concerned and want a nontoxic community.