Along with lovely fall weather these days, we continue to be impacted by daily disconcerting news. This which can make us feel helpless to effect needed change for ourselves, our families, our country and our planet.
Take heart! Along with signing petitions and communicating our concerns with lawmakers, our collective individual actions can make a difference in our/our family's well-being while adding to the good actions of others. As we get closer to the 2022 Maryland General Assembly session, we will have a number of advocacy actions we hope you will support Smart on Pesticides Coalition on. In the meantime, please embrace the actions you can take personally in this month's newsletter.
For parents/guardians of Maryland public school students, please note that our schools are required to implement the 1998 and 1999 Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in Schools laws that require our schools to prioritize non-chemical pest and land care management options and only use chemical pesticides as a last resort. Sadly, many of our schools are not adhering to the law, including failing to notify parents and staff when any pesticide is used, indoors and on school grounds. Read this overview of the law. Check with your school, to ensure they are fully abiding by the law's requirements. The Md Dept. of Agriculture has failed to enforce the law since its inception... and we continue to work on getting them to do what they are required to do to protect students and staff. Help us make that happen by inquiring if your child's school is adhering to the law and let us know what yu are told.
Take care everyone! The Smart on Pesticides team
Please help support our work to protect our babies, bees, and the Bay!
Vote With Your Wallet, Vote With Your Fork! GO Organic! Where to shop, how to go organic in all you do--even on a budget!Learn How
A new helpful EWG guide for avoiding lawn care companies looking to cash in on consumers' desire for friendly options by 'greenwashing' dangerous pesticide products. Read More
Take Action: Make a difference by hiring an organic lawn-care company. Read More
EWG also finds organic processed products contain significantly fewer ingredients associated with negative health effects, than non-organic processed foods.
Take action: Make a difference by increasing your organic food purchases. Read More
Mosquito season is still with us!
Learn about: Lemon Eucalyptus Oil:"Best Natural Insect Repellant" and avoid possible exposure to PFAS "forever chemical" contaminated pesticides.Read More
A new USGS report documents the exposure of fish to toxic contaminants throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, including exposure to27 pesticides, which can alter normal hormonal function in organisms. Four pesticides (atrazine, metolachlor, fipronil andsimazine) co-occurred frequently in surface water across sites.Read More
Not great news about our current US EPA...
The Office of the EPA Inspector General's damning report on EPA's failure to test pesticide impacts. "Without the required testing and an effective system of internal controls, the EPA cannot make measurable progress toward... safeguarding human health and the environment against risks from endocrine-disrupting chemicals."Read More
EPA Agency whistleblowers say management has routinely silencedand harassedthem to appease the chemical industry! Read More
EPA is failing to protect children by ignoring poisons in the environment and focusing on corporate interests, according to a top children's health official that the Trump EPA tried to silence. "The harm to children is irreparable" Read More
Giant Eagle, Whole Foods Market & Walmart have taken the top 3 spots on Friends of the Earth's latest Bee-Friendly Retailer Scorecard, which ranks 25 of the largest U.S. grocery retailers on pesticides and pollinator protection in their food & beverage supply chains. Read More
A local mid-Atlantic chain that deserves the highest marks is MOMS Organic Market (note the highlighted part of this retailers name) Read More
Pollinators are in dire straits, while harmful invasive insects are proliferating. This trend extends to other helpful insects as well, writes the Bay Journal. Read More
Conservationists are fed up with the lack of action on neonicotinoids. "The EPA doesn't need any more proof," says one expert after agency analyses detailed threat to endangered species. Read More
A pair of just-published studies from the journal Environmental Entomology show how exposure to toxic neonicotinoid pesticides harms two major species of bees. Read More
Here's how much food contributes to climate change: Animal-based foods produce about twice the emissions of plant-based foods, a new comprehensive study finds.
Take action: Make a difference by increasing your weekly plant-based meals. Read More
Researchers have found a way to discourage destructive aphids from settling in on crops and gardens, without the hassle of trying to keep ladybugs on your property, simply by spraying ladybug odors. Read More
Grist breaks down how sustainable farming is the future of farming. "When it comes to competing against forces of gentrification and big agribusiness in the name of food equity, small farmers and urban farms have a lot in common." Read More
At a time when interest in regenerative agriculture is growing, a new study looks at the way pesticides can devastate soil species that foster plant health and sequester carbon. Read More
Protecting the soil in a winter garden primarily involves keeping the soil covered & maintaining a living root in the soil whenever possible, for as long as possible. Elizabeth Waddington breaks down how she protects her garden from the weather. Read More
Leading global food expert Mark Bittman argues in his new book, Animal, Vegetable, Junk, that the true cost of US food production is destroying our environment and destroying the health of much of the public.Read More
Breakfast at Monsanto's, a new blockbuster book by Lee A. Evslin, M.D., discusses how pesticides play a key role in America's "twin epidemics of obesity and chronic diseases." Read More
Please help support our work to protect our babies, bees, and the Bay!
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