Montgomery County Council member Tom Hucker wants to ban the use of the pesticide Roundup and other pesticides that contain the herbicide glyphosate.
In a Nov. 21 letter to Mike Riley, the director of the Montgomery County Department of Parks, Hucker wrote that the International Agency for Research on Cancer has found a link between glyphosate and cancer. He also cited a lawsuit from earlier this year in which a California jury awarded $289 million to a school groundskeeper, alleging that glyphosate caused his lymphoma.
According to WAMU, the Worth Health Organization determined in 2015 that Roundup, which is used to kill weeds, was “probably carcinogenic to humans,” prompting the council to ban the chemical’s use all public and private property. But that ban was struck down two years later in Montgomery County Circuit Court, with Judge Terrence McGann ruling that the county law violated state law. Former County Executive Ike Leggett had said at the time that the law might be preempted.
In the letter, Hucker said safe substitutes for Roundup are available, and that finding an alternative is the “fiscally and environmentally responsible thing to do.”
“Please provide cost estimates for Parks’ current annual spending on Roundup and other pesticides containing glyphosate. Please also provide any cost estimates for weed management products that do not contain glyphosate as well as for alternative weed management practices that could be employed locally without the use of any pesticides,” he wrote.
Hucker has posted a petition with a copy of the letter online, aiming to get 500 signatures. As of Friday afternoon, he had surpassed that number with 518 signatures.
Dan Schere can be reached at Daniel.schere@moco360.media
