A bill banning the use of pesticides at children's day camps and overnight summer camps is heading to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk after it was given final approval this week by state lawmakers. 

The measure's consideration by the governor would come as summer camps are set to reopen in the coming weeks in New York with restrictions meant to blunt the spread of COVID-19. 

But its potential approval by the governor would also come a decade after New York state put in place anti-pesticide laws for public and non-public schools. The measure approved this week expands the existing law to include children's camps. 

Lawmakers pointed to the current procedures for protecting kids from pesticides at camps as lacking, with warning labels stuck on the grass doing little to keep kids from playing there and do not always reflect the variation of half-life ingredients in the chemicals. 

“For the last decade New York has prohibited the use of toxic pesticides on school and daycare playing fields,” said Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, the Democratic sponsor of the bill in the state Assembly. “It’s time to extend the same protections for children to playing fields at overnight and day camps.”

The bill was previously approved in the state Senate, where it was sponsored by Sen. Samra Brouk.