Renewed push to reform pesticide use on Cesar Chavez Day
On what would have been Cesar Chavez’s 88th birthday, a group of Californians are renewing its push against pesticide use in the state.
On Tuesday, farm workers, teachers, politicians and parents gathered in Watsonville. They, like others across the state discussed how to better protect everyone who lives, works and is around agriculture fields that use pesticides, especially those that can drift into the air.
One of those is chloropicrin, which they say has been linked to cancer and other developmental impacts. While the Department of Pesticide Regulation created “air buffers” designed to protect people, some argue it’s not working.
Justin Matlow is a North Monterey County teacher who lives in Watsonville with his family. He and the Pesticide Action Network measured the air in his backyard.
“My home is 350 feet away from the field,” Matlow said. “We showed some intense levels of exposure, three and a half times the buffer zone. So I feel our data, we can see that this stuff does drift.”
State Senate Majority Leader Bill Monning was also there and addressed the crowd.
“There’s a convergence of the work that Cesar did to bring awareness to the health issues of pesticides,” Monning said.
Matlow and others want to create bigger buffer zones between agriculture field and homes and schools. These protection zones would be at least a mile wide. There’s also a push to create a website that will tell residents when pesticides will be applied, so folks can plan to leave the area. They’re asking for tougher regulations regarding chloropicrin.
Speakers also addressed a new statistic that shows Latino children are most in harm’s way of pesticides, especially in Monterey County. According to data from the Department of Public Health, Latino children in California were 91 percent more likely than white children to go to schools within a quarter-mile of the heaviest use of pesticides. In Monterey County, it’s 320 percent.
“It’s concerning for my family and we are concerned about school children in the area who are also exposed to the same fumigant,” Matlow said.
