Support the Massachusetts Schoolchildren Pesticide Protection Act, H.926

Filed by Representative Carmine Gentile

Please use this form to send a message to your legislators in support of this proposed law.

*Note: Phone calls will MAGNIFY your email by 100X. Please consider calling the office of your rep. after sending a quick email. You can find the number to their offices, here.

A phone call can be as simple as this - after introducing yourself and saying where you live -

For Representatives:

"Please share my gratitude with Rep. [X] for passing H.4931 to track pesticide use in Massachusetts. Let's take action to actually reduce pesticides use by passing H.926, which would protect schoolchildren from pesticides."

For Senators:

"I'm happy to hear that the house passed H.4931 to track pesticide use in Massachusetts. Please contact Senate Ways and Means in support of the bill so the Senate can pass it too! I also hope that you will support H.926, the bill to protect schoolchildren from pesticides, once it gets to the Senate."

Children are especially vulnerable to toxic pesticides.

• Children absorb more pesticides relative to their body weight than adults.
• Children’s organ systems are still developing and are less able to detoxify harmful chemicals.
• In 2012 the  American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) called for governments  to reduce children’s exposure to pesticides writing that scientific evidence “demonstrates associations between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems.”

Learn more about children and pesticides HERE

Update, June 29, 2022: Today the MA House of Representatives passed a bill to digitize annual pesticide reporting in Massachusetts (which is currently paper-based and useless for advocacy). H.4931, “the rodenticide bill,” is a critical measure to help us understand the extent of pesticide use in our Commonwealth. Let’s continue with this momentum and call for real action to reduce pesticides!

With the legislative session ending July 31st, the legislature still has an opportunity to actually protect our communities and REDUCE pesticide use by also passing H.926, An Act relative to improving pesticide protections for Massachusetts schoolchildren.

About the proposed law: The Massachusetts Schoolchildren Pesticide Protection Act

Under this proposed law, only pesticides considered minimum risk by the U.S. EPA and those permitted for organic use will be allowed near schools and child care centers in Massachusetts, except in the case of a health emergency when school officials could apply for a waiver. In 2010 NY passed a similar law as did CT in 2015.

If you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, school committee member, city or town official, or just a concerned citizen -- we need you!

Please use this action page (click the red "START WRITING" button in the righthand column) to send a message to your state legislators in support of H.926 - “An Act Relative to Improving Pesticide Protections for Massachusetts School Children” Take a few seconds to write to your legislators asking them pass this bill to protect schoolchildren from toxic pesticides!

Note: This form will provide you with some talking points and you can find many more below.  After you send an email through this form, maximize your impact by calling their office.

More background and potential talking points:

On November 12, 2019, legislators heard five hours of passionate testimony from a hearing room packed with advocates concerned about pesticides (pictured above). Over 100 parents, teachers, beekeepers, farmers, landscapers, pediatricians and academics attended the hearing to send a strong message to legislators: it’s time to reduce pesticides use in Massachusetts!

Update February 2021: The bill has been refiled for the 2021-22 legislative session, so that means we need to get cosponsors and there'll be another public hearing. Due to the pandemic, many important and popular bills stalled. We're picking it up now as momentum only grows!

⧫  The outdoor use of toxic pesticides like glyphosate and 2,4-D is currently permitted to be sprayed at schools and child care centers in Massachusetts in order “to maintain quality appearance” or (ironically), under the guise of student “safety.”

⧫  Children take in more pesticides relative to their body weight than adults and have developing organ systems that are more vulnerable and less able to detoxify harmful chemicals.

⧫  In 2012 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) called for governments to reduce children’s exposure to pesticides. AAP wrote that scientific evidence “…demonstrates associations between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems.”

⧫  Young infants and toddlers exposed to herbicides within their first year of life are 4.5 times more likely to develop asthma by the age of five, and almost 2.5 times more likely when exposed to insecticides.

⧫ Children with elevated levels of commonly used pyrethroid insecticides, often applied to manage ants and other common schoolyard pests, are more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems. Boys with detectable urinary 3-PBA, a biomarker of exposure to pyrethroids, are three times as likely to have ADHD compared with those without detectable 3-PBA.

⧫  Of the 30 most commonly used lawn pesticides, 16 are possible and/or known carcinogens, 17 have the potential to disrupt the endocrine (hormonal) system, 21 are linked to reproductive effects and sexual dysfunction, 12 have been linked to birth defects, 14 are neurotoxic, 25 can cause kidney or liver damage, and 26 are sensitizers and/or irritants.

You can read the full bill (it’s very short) and see the existing legislative cosponsors, here: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/HD458

Now is the time to pass HD.458, “An Act Relative to Improving Pesticide Protections for Massachusetts School Children,” filed by Representative Carmine Gentile (2021).

Similar to legislation passed in New York state in 2010 and Connecticut in 2015, this bill brings the list of pesticides eligible for outdoor use around schools in line with the latest science on the dangers pesticides pose to children.

Eligible products under HD.458  would be limited to those that are considered minimum risk by EPA, or certified organic. These are the least-toxic, yet still effective, pest management products on the market, ensuring that children are not exposed to chronic poisons where they learn.

Minimum risk pesticides are of a characteristic having such low toxicity that products containing these substances can make pesticidal claims without going through the formal EPA registration process.

Organic products undergo another level of review as part of the organic certification process by an independent board of experts at the National Organic Standards Board, further considering health and safety.

This legislation still leaves groundskeepers with a wide range of “tools in the toolbox” to be used as part of an IPM (Integrated Pest Management) plan and In the event of a human health emergency, school officials or child care operators may still file for a pesticide waiver.

Please let your legislators know that you support their bold leadership on pesticides and urge them to pass these bills. Encourage them to stand up to the chemical industry lobbyists and take action to protect our children. Please take action and share this page far and wide so that legislators know this is an important bill to pass this session!

Note: Personal phone calls are worth 100X more than emails. We strongly encourage supporters to call their legislators directly about these bills after sending an email. You can look up their names and phone numbers, here: openstates.org

*Special thanks to Beyond Pesticides and the office of Representative Carmine Gentile for providing facts and references for this action page.