Summary

This legislation amends Title 12 of Article 33 the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) to require the Commissioner’s yearly report on pesticides to include data on the product name and active ingredient and that this information be provided to parties requesting the report. In addition, the legislation requires annual reports filled with the Commissioner by commercial applicators, sellers, and manufactures be made in electronic and scannable form. 

Explanation

This bill strengthens the existing pesticide reporting laws of New York State that requires the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to report annually on pesticide sales, use, applications, as well as requires commercial applicators, sellers of restricted pesticides, and manufactures to report annually to the DEC.  

Rachel Carson sounded the alarm bells in 1962 in her preeminent book Silent Spring of the adverse human health and environmental impacts of pesticide use; and while progress has been made and some of the most dangerous pesticides have been banned, it does not mean pesticides currently registered for use under Federal or state law are safe.  

Large amounts of pesticides are being applied every year in New York. DEC reported that 3.3 million gallons and 28.3 million pounds of pesticides were used by commercial applicators in 2017, encompassing 4,422 types of pesticide products. Under the existing reporting system, searching by product names and active ingredients is not easily accessible. While New Yorkers continue to face impacts from pesticide use, requiring robust transparency and efficient public access of pesticide data is critical to keeping New Yorkers informed and pesticide users and producers appropriately monitored.    

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