HONOLULU -- A group of lawmakers and community members on Monday urged the governor to sign two bills they said will make the islands safer from mishandled pesticides.

There have been a number of recent incidents in which schools have had to close because of pesticides.

There are two bills awaiting the governor's signature that proponents said would make Hawaii safer from mishandled pesticides.

Earlier this month Kahuku High School was closed for nearly a week after a turf farmer sprayed insecticide near the school and students became ill. Last year, students at Waiau Elementary School were hospitalized after someone poured the insecticide Malathion onto a driveway near the school.

Clare Apana said she became sick when a neighbor spilled concentrated Malathion next to her house in Kaimuki.

"That bottle broke and the vapors came straight into my house, and I was poisoned," Apana said.

She went to the Capitol on Monday to help lawmakers urge the governor to sign two bills aimed at preventing the kind of problems she experienced.

"I lost my entire house my life, my business, my health. Every day I have to worry about, am I going to come into contact with a little bit of this pesticide?"

One bill would require merchants who sell pesticides to provide notification cards explaining the safe way to use, store and dispose of them.

"This is powerful stuff it can do a great deal of damage to human beings if it's not used properly," Rep. Kirk Caldwell said.

The other bill would require a license to purchase or use certain powerful pesticides.

"You've got to think about the choice you're making. You're going to expose your children, your family, other neighbors," Caldwell said.

What the sponsors of the bills want is to prevent children made sick by the careless use of pesticides, by requiring licenses to use some and warning cards to accompany all pesticides.