Study Finds “Bee-Friendly” Plants Often Contain Harmful Pesticides

  Are bee-killers lurking in your backyard? According to a national study released today, there’s a good chance they are. The study, Gardeners Beware 2014, released by Friends of the Earth and other organizations, including the Maryland Pesticide Network, shows that 36 out of 71 (51 percent) of garden plant samples purchased at top garden retailers […]

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Governor O’Malley Signs Funding Bill for Pesticide Reporting

  On May 15, 2014, Governor Martin O’Malley brought Maryland one step closer to having much-needed information about pesticide usage by signing House Bill 621 / Senate Bill 700 into law, which establishes funding for pesticide reporting. As advocates cheered the bill signing, they also released a new video about the need for scientifically valid […]

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Coalition Response to Pesticide Workgroup Interim Report

  Download a PDF of this document here. The Smart on Pesticides coalition applauds the leadership of the Maryland Pesticide Reporting and Information Workgroup co-chairs, Senator Roger Manno and Delegate Stephen Lafferty, in working to find consensus amongst a stakeholder group representing significantly divergent perspectives. The following are our coalition’s specific response to the findings […]

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Pesticide Information Could Help Solve Mysterious Bee Deaths

  Take a look at this fabulous op-ed in support of a pesticide-reporting database in Maryland, by Dixie Mullineaux, Bonnie Raindrop and Roger Williams on behalf of Maryland beekeepers. It ran in the The Baltimore Sun. The authors make a powerful case for why we need a pesticide-reporting database: With literally hundreds of registered pesticides […]

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Honeybees and Groundwater: Canaries in the Pesticide Coalmine

Maryland’s Pesticide Reporting and Information workgroup heard from a new voice about the need for a centralized reporting system for basic information — information that is already legally required — on when and where pesticides are used commercially in our state. In his testimony to the workgroup, President of the Central Maryland Beekeepers Roger Williams […]

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Five out of Five Scientists Agree – We Need More Information about Pesticides

  The August meeting of the Maryland Pesticide and Information Act Workgroup, its second, focused on what we do and don’t know about pesticides. A group of scientists and researchers came to Annapolis to answer four basic questions: What pesticides data exists and who uses it? What information gaps have been identified and by whom? […]

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Op-Ed: Why Maryland Needs Pesticide Reporting

  MPN Executive Director Ruth Berlin makes her case for passing the Maryland Pesticide Reporting and Information Act (SB 675 and HB 775) in the Annapolis Capital Gazette, “Why Maryland needs pesticide reporting, February 23, 2013. The law would mandate establishment of an online reporting system to collect basic information on potentially toxic chemicals applied […]

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Op-Ed: We Need More Information About Pesticides

  Check out this terrific op-ed from representatives of the Maryland Chapter of the Academy of Pediatrics and the Baltimore Physicians for Social Responsibility, in support of our Smart on Pesticides Maryland campaign. The campaign calls for the 2013 Maryland General Assembly to pass a bill requiring pesticide applicators, as well as sellers of restricted […]

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