To: The Maryland State House, The Maryland State Senate, and Governor Larry Hogan
Support Pesticide Use Reporting in Maryland!
Basic pesticide reporting is part of a good, transparent government. I urge Maryland's elected officials to support H.B. 621 and S.B. 700 to create a dedicated fund for a pesticides reporting database that will help keep our families, kids, waterways, and wildlife safe from pesticides.
Why is this important?
In the 1990s, my 4-year old son and I were both poisoned by the aerial spraying of pesticides that resulted in my son going into anaphylactic shock . This happened again at his elementary school –a direct result of a pesticide applied while school was in session!
Pesticides pose a serious risk to our health, to the Chesapeake Bay and local waterways, and to wildlife – particularly to honeybees. Scientists say that professional pesticide applicators need to make pesticide use information available to researchers. That way, experts will have the data they need to determine if and when pesticides are affecting our health, our waters, and our environment.
Our children’s health is too important to leave to chance. We need a pesticide reporting database to help our public health experts know which of the hundreds of pesticides in use they should focus on when assessing pesticide impacts. We can't afford not to know.