Bill Text: HI HCR230 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requesting The Departments Of Agriculture And Health To Evaluate California's Current And Pending Regulations On Chlorpyrifos And Make Recommendations For Implementation Of Similar Regulations In Hawaii.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-2)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-03-28 - Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Representative(s) Souki excused (1). [HCR230 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2018-HCR230-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	230
TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE, 2018
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

Requesting the Departments of Agriculture and Health to evaluate California's current and PENDING regulations on Chlorpyrifos and make RECOMMENDATIONS for IMPLEMENTATION of similar regulations in Hawaii.

 

 

 

WHEREAS, in 2016, the United States Environmental Protection Agency released a revised human health risk assessment for the chemical pesticide chlorpyrifos, confirming that it does not have any safe uses; and

 

WHEREAS, the Environmental Protection Agency found that:

 

     (1)  There is no safe level of human exposure to food and drinking water containing chlorpyrifos;

 

     (2)  Chlorpyrifos remains at unsafe levels as far as three hundred feet beyond the edge of a field where it is has been applied, due to pesticide drift;

 

     (3)  Chlorpyrifos has been detected at unsafe levels in the air at schools, homes, and communities in agricultural areas;

 

     (4)  Workers who mix and apply chlorpyrifos are exposed to unsafe levels of the pesticide even with the use of the maximum level of personal protective equipment and engineering controls;

 

     (5)  Farms often allow field workers to re-enter fields within five days after spraying chlorpyrifos despite unsafe exposure levels persisting, on average, for eighteen days after application; and

 

     (6)  Chlorpyrifos is acutely toxic and associated with neurodevelopmental harms in children, causing intelligence deficits and attention, memory, and motor problems; and

 

WHEREAS, on December 15, 2017, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment of the California Environmental Protection Agency added chlorpyrifos to the list of chemicals known to the State of California to cause reproductive and developmental toxicity; and

 

WHEREAS, the State of California Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee also noted that chlorpyrifos causes reproductive and developmental toxicity and, starting December 15, 2018, all California businesses with ten or more employees will be required to provide a clear and reasonable warning before knowingly exposing anyone to chlorpyrifos above a certain level determined by California's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986; and

 

WHEREAS, the Department of Agriculture testified in a joint House of Representatives hearing before the Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection that the Department of Agriculture considers California as a model for Hawaii with regard to pesticide regulation and use; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-ninth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2018, the Senate concurring, that the Departments of Agriculture and Health are requested to jointly evaluate California's current and pending regulations on chlorpyrifos and develop recommendations for similar regulations applicable to Hawaii; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Departments of Agriculture and Health are requested to evaluate any negative impact on Hawaii if the Environmental Protection Agency regulations on chlorpyrifos are not implemented; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the Departments of Agriculture and Health are requested to submit a report of their findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2019; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to Chairperson of the Board of Agriculture and the Director of Health.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Chlorpyrifos; Chemical Pesticides; California Regulations; DOA; DOH; EPA; Farming