New report looks at pesticide use near California schools

A new study from the Department of Public Health looks at the use of pesticides near California schools.

The report finds Monterey County has the sixth highest rate of agricultural pesticide use in the state and that it has the fifth-highest number of schools in which any amount of pesticides were used within a quarter mile of the campus.

The full report can be read here.

Members of the organizations Californians for Pesticide Reform and the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council planned to hold a press conference

Other findings of the report included:

More than a quarter – 25.1 percent — of schoolchildren (18,525) in Monterey County attended schools within a quarter mile of the most highly hazardous pesticide use.
Some 46 percent of the county’s schools are located within a quarter-mile of the most highly hazardous pesticide use.