"After decades of pressure from farmworkers and their allies, California launched a statewide system to warn communities before they’re exposed to toxic pesticides. But health concerns remain."
"On a sweltering August morning in 1988, Cesar Chavez ended a 36-day water-only fast to protest high rates of cancer and birth defects among California grape workers and their children, which he blamed on the profusion of pesticides in the fields, water and air around farming towns.
Thirty-seven years later, state regulators launched the nation’s first early-warning system for spraying toxic agricultural chemicals.
California has long produced more fruits, vegetables and nuts than any other state. But that bounty comes at a cost. State officials logged more than 2,500 cases of pesticide-related illnesses between 2011 and 2021, when growers applied an average of 202 million pounds of pesticides a year, including chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects and neurological and reproductive damage, among other health problems.
On Monday, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation launched SprayDays, billed as “a first-of-its-kind statewide system to provide transparent, accessible and timely notifications and information about the use of specific pesticides.” State officials celebrated the launch in Shafter, a small Central Valley town known for producing table grapes and tree nuts that is inundated by air pollution from pesticides and oil and gas operations. The celebration was about 20 miles south of where Chavez refused food to raise awareness about the pesticide poisoning of farmworkers."
Liza Gross reports for Inside Climate News March 26, 2025.
SEE ALSO:
"California Launches Statewide Pesticide Notification System" (Environmental Health News)
Advertisement 
