Smart on Pesticides: Maryland- For Safe Water and Healthy Kids

Environmental Challenge

Pesticides pose a serious risk to our health, to the Chesapeake Bay and local waterways, and to homeland security - but Maryland lacks the information we need about some pesticide use and the sales of restricted use pesticides.

We need pesticide applicators as well as sellers of restricted use pesticides to report the information they are already required to maintain. That way, research scientists and environmental and public health experts will have data they can use to determine if and when pesticides are affecting our health, our waters, and homeland security.
The Pesticide Information Act creates a simple and cost-neutral, centralized online pesticide reporting database. Making basic pesticide reporting information available to environmental and public health officials and research scientists is good government. Once the experts have more information about when and where pesticides are used, we will be better able to protect our families and our waterways, including the Chesapeake Bay.

Bill Framework

Certified applicators (including commercially licensed businesses and public agencies), farmers and dealers of restricted use pesticides (RUPs), are currently required to keep records on pesticide usage, or restricted use pesticides purchases and sales, at their place of business. This bill requires submission of this data via computer, Smartphone or hard copy to a centralized system under MDA that can be accessed by public health and environmental experts. The Pesticide Information Act creates an online centralized database, a cost-neutral program to the state, based on a reasonable increase in existing registration fees borne by the manufacturers (like Dow Chemical, Monsanto, Bayer) to cover system setup and maintenance costs. Out of 14 states surveyed, Maryland had the 2nd lowest registration fee ($100/product). Our registration fee is lower than neighboring Chesapeake Bay watershed states of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Cost pass-through to applicators is highly unlikely based on a survey of product costs and registration fees in other states.

The bill addresses the needs of:

• PUBLIC HEALTH: Provides necessary data to public health experts for evaluating relationships of human health impacts and pesticide exposures - including tracking farmer family health and specific pesticide exposures (e.g., cancer or autism cluster).
• THE BAY: Provides detailed geographic usage information for Bay restoration experts and researchers to assess impacts on rivers, streams and stormwater runoff is essential to evaluate the potential effects on fish and wildlife.
• HOMELAND SECURITY: Access and use of RUP purchase and sale data is critical as it has immediate public safety implications and needs to be reported and accessed and reviewed at least monthly by various agencies.

For more information, please contact:

Ruth Berlin, 410-849-3909, ext 1 / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it / www.smartonpesticides.org
Andy Galli, 401-631-0355 / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Newly Released Poll Results Are Below:

MD Pesticides Poll Summary.pdf
Pesticides and Maryland New Polling Data.pdf

For more information, contact Andy Fellows from Clean Water Action at  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it