"California Farmworker Communities Win the Right to Be Notified of Pesticide Applications in Advance,"

...

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.”...

Shafter residents first pushed for advance spraying notices as part of A.B. 617’s Community Air Protection Program, which was established to reduce exposure in communities most impacted by air pollution. But when the county agricultural commissioner declined to implement the community’s plan, [associate director of the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, Gustavo] Aguirre said, “we took it to the state.”

And now, instead of a notification system just for the area around Shafter, communities can celebrate a notification system that applies to the entire state of California, he said...

Although the notification system “is a huge step forward,” it’s not perfect, he said. “Our communities have loudly and consistently demanded the exact location to be revealed, but today’s system does not have that.”...