Bill Text: HI SB2636 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating To Pesticides.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-01-26 - Re-Referred to AEN/CPH, JDC. [SB2636 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2018-SB2636-Introduced.html

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THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2636
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

relating to pesticides.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that use of the chemical pesticide chlorpyrifos is a concern to the State.  Chlorpyrifos is a restricted use pesticide in the State and is also the most widely used conventional insecticide in the country by pounds of active ingredient. 

     The legislature recognizes that, in November 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency released a revised human health risk assessment for chlorpyrifos.  In its revised risk assessment, the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed that there are no safe uses of chlorpyrifos.

     Specifically, the Environmental Protection Agency found that:

     (1)  All food and drinking water exposures to chlorpyrifos exceed safe levels;

     (2)  Pesticide drift reaches unsafe levels at three hundred feet from the field's edge;

     (3)  Chlorpyrifos is found at unsafe levels in the air at schools, homes, and communities in agricultural areas;

     (4)  All workers who mix and apply chlorpyrifos are exposed to unsafe levels of the pesticide even with maximum personal protective equipment and engineering controls in place;

     (5)  Field workers are allowed to re-enter fields within one to five days after pesticide spraying, but unsafe exposures continue on average for eighteen days after applications; and

     (6)  Chlorpyrifos is acutely toxic and associated with neurodevelopmental harms in children.

     In previous studies, the Environmental Protection Agency found that chlorpyrifos can overstimulate the nervous system, causing nausea, dizziness, confusion, and, at very high exposures, respiratory paralysis and death.  Extensive scientific studies show that exposing children or pregnant women to chlorpyrifos in even small amounts may cause developmental delays, permanently reduced cognitive capacity, behavioral problems, and learning disabilities.

     In response to a petition by advocacy groups, under the Obama Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency twice issued proposals to revoke all chlorpyrifos tolerances —  the maximum amount of pesticides allowed on a food product.  However, the Environmental Protection Agency failed to finalize the ban on chlorpyrifos.  After multiple delays, a federal judge gave the agency a March 31, 2017, deadline to take action.

     Under the Trump Administration, in March 2017, the Environmental Protection Agency reversed its direction and announced that it would formally postpone action on the use of chlorpyrifos on food-grade products and instead study the unresolved effects of chlorpyrifos through 2022.  Despite a legal challenge by several organizations and seven states to the Environmental Protection Agency's decision, a federal appeals court declined to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to decide whether to ban the use of chlorpyrifos.

     In Hawaii, in 2016, at least ten farm workers of a West Kauai agribusiness operation were taken to the hospital after exposure to chlorpyrifos.  Chlorpyrifos has also been found in the air at Waimea Canyon middle school, in the water in the Kekaha ditch, and in streams in Hawaii county.  Despite the failure of the Environmental Protection Agency to ban chlorpyrifos, the legislature finds that it must take action to eliminate the health risks posed by the use of chlorpyrifos by prohibiting its use within the State.

     The purpose of this Act is to ban the distribution, sale, transport, and use within the State of pesticides containing chlorpyrifos as an active ingredient.

     SECTION 2.  Section 149A-11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

     "(a)  Except as otherwise exempted in section 149A-12, it shall be unlawful for any person to distribute, solicit, sell, offer for sale, hold for sale, transport, deliver for transportation, or receive and having so received, deliver or offer to deliver to any person in intrastate commerce or between points within this State through any point outside this State any of the following:

     (1)  Any pesticide which is not licensed pursuant to section 149A-13, or any pesticide if any of the claims made for it or any of the directions for its use differ in substance from the representations made in connection with its licensing, or if the composition of a pesticide differs from its composition as represented in connection with its licensing; provided that in the discretion of the department, a change in the labeling or formula of a pesticide may be made within a licensing period without requiring an additional licensing of the product.

     (2)  Any pesticide unless it is in the licensee's or the manufacturer's unbroken immediate container, and there is affixed to the container and to the outside container or wrapper of the retail package, if any, through which the required information on the immediate container cannot be clearly read, a label bearing information pursuant to section 149A-15.

     (3)  Any pesticide which contains any substance or substances in quantities highly toxic to humans, determined as provided in section 149A-19, unless the label bears, in addition to any other matter required by this chapter:

          (A)  A symbol of the skull and crossbones;

          (B)  The word "POISON" prominently, in red, on a background of distinctly contrasting color; and

          (C)  A statement of emergency medical treatment or an antidote when appropriate for the pesticide.

     (4)  Pesticides containing any of the ingredients commonly known as standard lead arsenate, basic lead arsenate, calcium arsenate, magnesium arsenate, zinc arsenate, zinc arsenite, sodium fluoride, sodium fluosilicate, or barium fluosilicate, unless they have been distinctly colored or discolored, or any other white powder pesticide which the board requires to be distinctly colored or discolored after investigation of and after a public hearing on the necessity for and feasibility of coloring or discoloring the pesticide for the protection of the public health, unless it has been so colored or discolored pursuant to section 149A-16.

     (5)  Any pesticide or device which is adulterated or misbranded as defined in section 149A-2.

     (6)  Any pesticide or device that is an imitation of another pesticide or device.

     (7)  Any restricted use pesticide unless the person has a permit issued in accordance with section 149A-17.

     (8)  Any restricted use pesticide to persons other than a certified pesticide applicator or any uncertified personnel under the certified pesticide applicator's supervision, or a licensed dealer, wholesaler, or retailer.

     (9)  Any pesticide containing chlorpyrifos as an active ingredient."

     SECTION 3.  Section 149A-31, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§149A-31  Prohibited acts.  No person shall:

     (1)  Use any pesticide in a manner inconsistent with its label, except that it shall not be unlawful to:

          (A)  Apply a pesticide at any dosage, concentration, or frequency less than that specified on the label or labeling; provided that the efficacy of the pesticide is maintained and further provided that, when a pesticide is applied by a commercial applicator, the deviation from the label recommendations must be with the consent of the purchaser of the pesticide application services;

          (B)  Apply a pesticide against any target pest not specified in the labeling if the application is to a crop, animal, or site specified on the label or labeling; provided that the label or labeling does not specifically prohibit the use on pests other than those listed on the label or labeling;

          (C)  Employ any method of application not prohibited by the labeling;

          (D)  Mix a pesticide or pesticides with a fertilizer when such mixture is not prohibited by the label or labeling; or

          (E)  Use in a manner determined by rule not to be an unlawful act;

     (2)  Use, store, transport, or discard any pesticide or pesticide container in any manner which would have unreasonable adverse effects on the environment;

     (3)  Use or apply restricted use pesticides unless the person is a certified pesticide applicator or under the direct supervision of a certified pesticide applicator with a valid certificate issued pursuant to rules adopted under section 149A-33(1); provided that it shall be prohibited to use or apply a restricted use pesticide for structural pest control uses for a fee or trading of services, unless the user or applicator is a pest control operator or is employed by a pest control operator licensed under chapter 460J;

     (4)  Use or apply pesticides in any manner that has been suspended, canceled, or restricted pursuant to section 149A-32.5;

     (5)  Falsify any record or report required to be made or maintained by rules adopted pursuant to this chapter; [or]

     (6)  Fill with water, through a hose, pipe, or other similar transmission system, any tank, implement, apparatus, or equipment used to disperse pesticides, unless the tank, implement, apparatus, equipment, hose, pipe, or other similar transmission system is equipped with an air gap or a reduced-pressure principle backflow device meeting the requirements under section 340E-2 and the rules adopted thereunder[.]; or

     (7)  Use or apply any pesticide containing chlorpyrifos as an active ingredient."

     SECTION 4.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on October 1, 2018.

 

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

 

 

Report Title:

Agriculture; Pesticides; Ban on Chlorpyrifos

 

Description:

Bans distribution, sale, transport, and use in the State of any pesticide containing chlorpyrifos as an active ingredient.  Takes effect on 10/1/2018.

 

 

 

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.