Fumigant use near schools has increased in California and in Ventura County over the past decade.
OXNARD — A news conference will be held at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18 at Plaza Park in Oxnard about the Department of Pesticide Regulation’s new 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) regulation and new data showing large increases in highly hazardous fumigant use near schools and daycares.
WHY: The Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), has finally completed its new 1,3-D regulation eight years after the courts ordered a redo. Farmworker communities, who have been protesting the use of this cancer-causing fumigant for decades, are outraged that the regulation allows schoolchildren and other farmworker community members to be exposed to concentrations 14 times more than the lifetime cancer risk threshold established by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA). 1,3-D is banned in 40 countries and is disproportionately applied in Latino and Indigenous communities. Teresa Gomez, the CAPS 805 organizer said, “This is a policy and a process of environmental racism.”
Adding to farmworker community concerns is the news that applications of the two most used fumigants in the State have increased near our schools. In Ventura County, 98,966 pounds of 1,3-D and chloropicrin were applied in 2010 within ¼-mile of schools. That figure jumped to 164,488 pounds in 2022 – a 66% increase. The top 15 pesticide use counties in 2010 saw a 45% increase in combined 1,3-D and chloropicrin use within a ¼-mile of schools in 2022.
Community leaders call for a rejection of the pesticide regulation-making process, a statewide phaseout of all fumigants, expanding the current ¼-mile school pesticide buffer zones to at least a full mile, and infilling the buffer zone areas with organic farming.
WHERE: Plaza Park, 500 South “C” Street, Oxnard, CA 93030
Also live streamed at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077352068463
Other news conferences will be held in Fresno, Modesto, and Watsonville.
A statewide news conference will be streamed on Zoom from Noon – 1p.m. with “drop-in” views of all four local news conferences at https://zoom.us/j/97527987438
WHEN:Tuesday, November 18 at 12:30 p.m.
WHO: News conference speakers will include the following:
- Byanka Santoyo, Organizer, Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment
- Ana Rosa Rizo-Centino,Senior Field Organizer, Greenpeace
- Jenny Alvarez,Community Organizer, United Farm Workers (UFW)
- Eulalia Mendoza, Community Organizer, Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP)
Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR) is a diverse, statewide coalition of 200+ member groups working to strengthen pesticide policies in California to protect public health and the environment. Member groups include public and children’s health advocates, clean air and water groups, health practitioners, environmental justice groups, labor, education, farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates from across the state. The Coalition Advocating for Pesticide Safety in the 805 (CAPS 805) is the Ventura County regional affiliate of Californians for Pesticide Reform.