Tag: Californians for Pesticide Reform

Guest contribution — New bill targets toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ on California Crops

by Community Contributor • March 23, 2026 • Comments Off

AB 1603 sets a timeline to end PFAS pesticides by 2035. Group sights report that show counties at risk include Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties

SALINAS — Currently, an estimated 2.5 million pounds of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” pesticides are used annually on California crops, resulting in PFAS residues on produce consumed across the nation. California Assemblymember Nick Schultz (D–44) has introduced AB 1603, legislation to phase out PFAS pesticides. Co-sponsored by the Environmental Working Group, the statewide coalition Californians for Pesticide Reform, Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network, and the Center for Environmental Health, the bill would establish a progressive timeline to end use of PFAS pesticides in California by 2035, while giving growers time for transition to safer alternatives.

First-in-the-World Online Pesticide Notification System launched, impacting farm working communities in Ventura County and elsewhere in California

by Community Contributor • March 25, 2025 • Comments Off

Irene Gomez, an Oxnard resident and member of the Coalition Advocating for Pesticide Safety – Ventura County or CAPS 805, raised a remaining concern: “When my community in Nyeland Acres had the pilot notification project, our biggest issue was that you couldn’t find out exactly where the pesticides would be applied – which farm? That’s still a problem with Spray Days. You can only know pesticides are being applied within a square mile, but not whether it’s coming from behind your house, across the street, or even a mile away.”

Farmworker communities protest regulation of cancer-causing pesticide as unscientific and racist

by Community Contributor • January 9, 2025 • Comments Off

VISALIA — More than 100 people (on Jan. 8) attended the Department of Pesticide Regulation’s (DPR) public hearing at the Visalia Veterans’ Memorial Building on its draft regulation of cancer-causing 1,3-dichloropropene (aka 1,3-D, brand name Telone) that addresses only “occupational bystanders” and relies on completely different assumptions of lifetime cancer risk exposure than the law regulating the same pesticide towards children and residents near agricultural fields.

Calls Mount for Advance Warning of Ag Pesticide Spray

by Community Contributor • May 28, 2021 • Comments Off

Californians in farmworker communities gathered Thursday online as well as in-person, calling on the state and county governments to web-post advance warning of agricultural pesticide use, citing the known health impacts of pesticide exposure and the tendency of pesticides to drift far from where they are applied. Currently, no notice is provided to the public. Advocates say that knowing in advance about hazardous chemical use near homes and schools would enable residents to take steps to protect themselves and their families from harm.

State’s ‘Short-term Fix’ for Brain-Damaging Pesticide Falls Short

by Community Contributor • November 16, 2018 • Comments Off

Under pressure to ban chlorpyrifos, pesticide regulators recommend inadequate exposure-reduction measures SACRAMENTO — Under intensifying pressure from a large coalition of health, education and environmental justice advocates, state regulators on Nov. 15 announced a set of interim recommended measures aimed at…

Calls intensify for California regulators to take action on chlorpyrifos. See Ventura County report here

by Community Contributor • October 4, 2018 • Comments Off

Trump Administration stalls court-ordered ban of brain-harming pesticide See Ventura Chlorpyrifos & OP studies for estimates of the increase in autism and IQ-loss risks from chlorpyrifos use in Ventura County, based upon studies by University of California scientists. SACRAMENTO — The U.S.…

Federal Court orders national ban on brain-harming chlorpyrifos within 60 days

by Community Contributor • August 10, 2018 • Comments Off

Decision confirms that California must also take action to protect communities now. Ventura County Coalition Advocating for Pesticide Safety (VC CAPS) is a local coalition in the CPR network. SACRAMENTO — Slamming the Trump administration’s repudiation of science, today the 9th Circuit Court of…

Guest commentary: State finds widespread risk from brain-harming pesticide

by Community Contributor • August 1, 2018 • Comments Off

Nerve agent chlorpyrifos is a Toxic Air Contaminant that threatens agricultural communities and harms children’s developing brains, state scientists agree SACRAMENTO — California took a step closer Monday to curbing the use of a pesticide linked to permanent brain harm, including…