Provides for the mapping of breast cancer in the state

BILL NUMBER:S4798

Title of bill

An act to amend the public health law, in relation to breast cancer research; and to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to compilation of data on pesticides

Purpose or general idea of the bill

The bill authorizes funding of mapping incidence of breast cancer from the Breast Cancer Research and Education Fund.

The bill amends the pesticide use and sales reporting requirements in the Environmental Conservation Law, to specify that the Department's annual report must report pesticide sales and use data by both product name and active ingredient. The bill further amends the pesticide use and sales reporting requirements, by specifying the commercial pesticide applicators and businesses, and sellers of restricted use pesticides report in electronic format or on scannable forms. Manufacturers and importers of restricted use pesticides are required to submit required sales records in electronic format.

The bill also changes the annual date by which DEC must produce the Pesticide Use and Sales Reporting data from July 1st to November 30th.

Justification

The provision that would authorize funding grant proposals for mapping of breast cancer incidence from the Breast Cancer Research and Education fund would encourage more innovative mapping proposals that have been produced by the Department of Health.

The current law requires the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to compile all of the pesticide use and sales records reported by commercial applicators; and sellers, importers and manufacturers of restricted use pesticides. Many of the records provided to the Department have been paper records. To reduce the overwhelming workload on the Department, the bill requires commercial pesticide applicators and sellers of restricted use pesticides to file their reports in electronic format or on scannable forms. Manufacturers and importers of restricted use pesticides will be required to file records in electronic format. The proposed change should significantly reduce the costs of administering the program and allow the Department to produce a more timely and accurate annual report.

Changing the date by which the pesticide use and sales data annual report to November 30th will allow DEC more time to complete the

report and more accurately reflect the data reported. Hopefully this will also allow for selecting a New York State contractor for the data entry, rather than using an out-of-state and out-of-country company for this work.

Prior legislative history

03/12/01 Passed Assembly (A.51B9) 03/18/02 Passed Assembly 06/09/03 Passed Assembly (A.3638) 02/23/04 Passed Assembly 2005-06: A.2264 Passed Assembly 2007-08: S.5569 Senate Health Cmte./A.850 Passed Assembly 2009-10: S.2605 Health Cmte.

Fiscal implications

There should be little impact on State and local governments, since these agencies already have computer capability and are therefore likely to file pesticide use records in electronic format.

Effective date

The law takes effect 60 days after enactment.