HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	219
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2015
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the Department of health to establish pesticide buffer zones around sensitive areas and to establish disclosure requirements for entities that use large quantities of restricted use pesticides.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, the number of large-scale, outdoor commercial agricultural operations in Hawaii has been increasing; and

 

     WHEREAS, unlike the majority of Hawaii's farmers, these operations regularly apply high volumes of restricted use pesticides into the environment; and

 

     WHEREAS, information pertaining to the intensive use of pesticides in large-scale commercial agriculture within the State is not readily available to the public; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State currently does not have an adequate regulatory structure in place to monitor the human health impacts of pesticide drift near sensitive populations; and

 

     WHEREAS, the direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts on the public health related to long-term intensive commercial use of pesticides has yet to be properly or independently evaluated; and

 

     WHEREAS, children, the elderly, and other sensitive residents have no choice but to live, work, and commute daily in close proximity to areas where restricted use pesticides are being sprayed; and

 

     WHEREAS, children can be exposed to pesticides applied on school grounds, pesticides that drift onto school grounds, or pesticide residues; and

 

     WHEREAS, of greatest concern are restricted use pesticides such as chlorpyrifos, which scientists have definitively linked to developmental delays in children, and other toxic exposure to pesticides during fetal, neonatal, and infant life that may disrupt critical development processes; and

 

     WHEREAS, life-long pesticide exposure for those living in exposed areas has been linked to long-term health effects, including cancer and other serious diseases, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2015, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Health is requested to establish, by rule, pesticide buffer zones around sensitive areas, including schools, hospitals, adult residential care homes, assisted living facilities, child care facilities, family child care homes, group child care centers, group child care homes, hospice homes, extended care adult residential care homes, expanded adult residential care homes, health care facilities, primary care clinics, shorelines, watersheds, and bodies of perennial waters; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislature requests that the buffer zones restrict the use of pesticides in the sensitive areas listed in the previous paragraph by commercial agricultural entities that purchase or use large quantities of restricted use pesticides; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to require commercial agricultural entities that purchase or use large quantities of restricted use pesticides to positively identify application sites using a unique and verifiable method; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to require commercial agricultural entities, schools, child care facilities, early childhood education and care facilities, family child care homes, group child care centers, and group child care homes that use or purchase large quantities of restricted use pesticides to disclose the use of all pesticides, including:

 

     (1)  Posting of signs warning the public of pesticide outdoor application;

 

     (2)  Notifying parents or guardians of children and residents within sensitive areas; and

 

     (3)  Providing annual public reports to the Department of all pesticides used in outdoor applications during the preceding calendar year; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to submit a report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2016 on actions taken to implement this Concurrent Resolution; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Director of Health.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Pesticides; Buffer Zones; Disclosure