What is the purpose of the law?

The purpose of the law is to protect the public health and welfare and to minimize the potential pesticide hazard to people and the environment, consistent with the public interest in the benefits derived from the safe use and application of pesticides. The goal is to inform the public about pesticide applications and minimize the use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes, while not restricting the ability to use pesticides in agriculture, for the protection of public health, or for other public benefit. 

Read the Pesticide Law

Legislative findings behind the law

The County Council finds that:

1. pesticides have value when they are used to protect the public health, the environment, and our food and water supply;
2. pesticides, by definition, contain toxic substances, many of which may have a detrimental effect on human health and the environment and, in particular, may have developmental effects on children;
3. exposure to certain pesticides has been linked to a host of serious conditions in children including pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems such as ADHD, and the following conditions in adults: Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, leukemia, lymphoma, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, dementia, reproductive dysfunction, Alzheimer’s disease, and a variety of cancers including breast, colon, prostate and lung cancer;
4. clean water is essential to human life, wildlife and the environment, and the unnecessary use of pesticides and herbicides for cosmetic purposes contributes to the deterioration of water quality, as substantiated by several studies including the 2014 USGS study which found that 90% of urban waterways have pesticide levels high enough to harm aquatic life;
5. bees and other pollinators are crucial to our ecosystem, and the use of neonicotinoid insecticides, which have been repeatedly and strongly linked with the collapse of honey bee colonies, as well as harm to aquatic insects and birds, pose an unacceptable risk to 30 beneficial organisms;
6. there are non- and less-toxic alternatives and methods of cultivating a healthy, green lawn that do not pose a threat to public health, and that use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes is not necessary for the management of lawns, especially in light of the risks associated with their use;
7. pesticide regulations at the federal and State level, and the risk assessments that inform them, do not mimic real world exposure scenarios and fail to account for synergistic or cumulative effects of multiple chemicals acting on the same pathway; do not include sufficient evaluation of a pesticide’s “inert” ingredients and the pesticide formulations that are sold to consumers; and often fail to take sensitive populations like children and pollinators into account;
8. in the absence of adequate regulation at the federal or State level, the County is compelled to act to protect the health of children, families, pets and the environment.