The Pesticides Focus Group was one of seven successful applicants which sought funding under the Ministry's Environmental Grant Scheme ? a programme "designed specifically to support and encourage all branches of the community to conserve, preserve, enhance and restore the island's natural environment".

A non-governmental organisation, the Pesticides Focus Group was established three years ago, its aim being to raise public awareness regarding the use and misuse of pesticides on the island, explained group chairperson Jamie Bacon.

"People are generally very cavalier in their attitude about pesticides at present," she said yesterday. "Much of it is ignorance."

Through presentations to schoolchildren the group learned of parents spraying them with Baygon to ward off mosquitoes and of parents spraying under beds while children slept, to remove cockroaches or spiders.

"People will use a whole can to kill a lizard; they'll finish off a can to get rid of ants. We want to get them thinking about why the ants are coming in; what they could be looking for; how to make use of non-toxic alternatives instead of spreading a poison around the environment."

With the help of funding from the Butterfield Bank Employees Shared Trust and the Bermuda Pest Control, the group managed to circulate two brochures to the public ? inserted into Bermuda Electric Light Company bills with the company's permission.

This week's grant will enable the funding and production of a further three brochures.

"There are certain people," Dr. Bacon explained, "who, as soon as they see a bug, even a whistling frog, will start spraying. Some people are just terrified of (them). Some people hate the thought of even a single ant in their house.

"I don't think they understand that attitude can be dangerous for their health, for their children's health, and for the environment."

The Environmental Grant Scheme was launched by the Ministry this year. Five awards to successful applicants were made in June. This recent group of awardees saw the total funding to environmentally-conscious organisations across the island reach $103,000.

"We recognised that legislation, regulations and policy alone could not be relied on to protect Bermuda's environmental quality and biological diversity," Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield said at the awards presentation.

"We saw the need to support practical steps and real action to effect change on the ground, and to promote initiatives to educate and raise levels of environmental awareness"

The Pesticides Focus Group was this year part of a task force created to determine how laws can be tightened to better protect Bermuda's environment.

Consultations with commercial pesticide users, including farmers fumigators and plant retailers, saw farmers complain that some of the proposals contained in a preliminary draft which was circulated to stakeholders, would cripple Bermudian agriculture ? already struggling because of duties on tractor parts and heightened competition from abroad.

Suggestions in the preliminary draft included the introduction of a licensing system for pesticide handling, which would require users to show Government that they are able to safely handle the chemicals. Other ideas might have commercial users keep a detailed log ? including weather conditions ? as to when they apply pesticides, and limit the occurrence of applications to requirements set by other countries.

Further, the legislation would address which pesticides could be imported and which could be sold.

"In America and Canada there are strict guidelines and they are tightly regulated," Dr. Bacon said. "Here, it wasn't. The rule of thumb was that if amount 'X' was a certain strength, if you make it twice as concentrated, it will be twice as good. (The legislation) is partly for their own safety. Many of the pesticides require protective gear. You don't see (handlers) wearing it."

While the planned legislation was not welcomed by the farmers, their main complaints were directed towards an idea that anyone transporting an amount of pesticide on the road should accompany their loads with absorbency materials that would ensure 110 per cent containment should there be a spillage.

According to Dr. Bacon, however, that complaint derived from a misunderstanding which has since been cleared up.

"If a pesticide is diluted, they don't have to have absorbent material to absorb that entire quantity. What they need is, if they transport concentrate, they need to be able to absorb 110 per cent of the concentrate. The extra ten per cent allows a little room for error."

What was hopeful, she added, was if the legislation was designed to keep with regulations by such bodies as the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States ? which changes regulations as more becomes known about specific pesticides.

Additional cash awards were presented to Frances Eddy for her plan to teach bio-intensive gardening skills to prisoners; Lisa Kitson for her educational programme to protect the skink; Stuart Smith for Save Open Spaces greenhouse project; the Bermuda High School for Girls' environmental education programme; the Bermuda Audubon Society's longtail programme and the Victor Scott School and Learning through Landscapes partnership which will see a concrete jungle replaced with a greener landscape.