Activist's yard sprayed with chemicals

ANN ARBOR, Mich.
An apparent mix-up resulted in a lawn care company spraying the yard of a prominent anti-pesticide activist.

Tess Karwoski, the health policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council in Lansing, said she was on the phone Thursday when she saw a TruGreen ChemLawn van parked in front of her home.

A uniformed man was spraying her yard with chemicals, The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press reported.

"I'm incensed that as much as I have worked on pesticide issues ... here they are spraying my yard," Karwoski said.

Karwoski said she ran outside and told the man to stop spraying. She said another worker had posted a sign urging children and pets to stay off the lawn just a few feet away from her own sign that read "Pesticide Free Zone."

Karwoski and company officials said that the spray crew showed up because TruGreen recently acquired a company Karwoski had hired to aerate her lawn and perform sprinkler work. TruGreen said it did nothing wrong.

But Karwoski said she had canceled the contract.