Two County Council members on Monday asked local hospitals to stop using pesticides on their properties in Montgomery County, citing “strong signals” from medical experts that the products are harmful to people.
Council members Roger Berliner and George Leventhal sent the request to the president of Gaithersburg-based Adventist Healthcare, as well as the presidents of Suburban Hospital, Holy Cross Health, MedStar Montgomery Medical Center and the Children’s National Health System.
It’s unclear if any of the hospitals do apply pesticides on their properties. A spokesperson for Suburban Hospital in Bethesda said the hospital was researching the question Monday afternoon.
"We are writing today to ask that hospitals in our county assume a leading role in increasing awareness of the health concerns regarding pesticides by voluntarily agreeing to eliminate their use on hospital grounds," Berliner and Leventhal wrote.
The council is preparing to resume its debate on Leventhal’s controversial bid to ban the use of popular lawn-care products such as Roundup.
Berliner, chairman of the council’s Environment Committee, previously asked leading cancer doctors at the National Cancer Institute whether available science proves a connection between lawn-care chemicals and cancer in humans.
Dr. Stephen Chanock replied that there’s not yet enough research to determine for certain whether specific pesticides are carcinogenic.
Some lawn-care providers and Montgomery Parks are fighting parts of the proposed ban, claiming that the county shouldn’t have a role in restricting pesticides that are already tested and approved by the federal government. The bill as proposed would exempt golf courses and agricultural uses from the ban.
Still, an agriculture group sought and got an opinion from the Maryland attorney general’s office that said the county could be preempted by state law when it comes to banning pesticide use on private property.
"Regardless of how broader questions about pesticide regulation are resolved by our Council, your taking this step would help reduce pesticide exposure for some of our most vulnerable residents and, more broadly, would increase awareness in our community as to its potential harmful effects,” Berliner and Leventhal wrote to the hospitals.
The two pointed to Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, which stopped using insecticides and herbicides in 2013 in accordance with that city’s pesticide ban.
Leventhal, who lives in Takoma Park, based much of his proposal on the law. The council president has said the vast majority of feedback he’s received has been supportive of the proposed ban.
