Local organizers rallied outside the Department of Pesticide Regulations in Clovis Tuesday to demand immediate pesticide reform following a study published this summer that found certain pesticides used in California were linked to childhood cancer.
The study, conducted by the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health linked 13 pesticides to childhood leukemia and brain tumors in children whose mothers lived within 2.5 miles of the pesticide application while pregnant.
“The researchers found that the pesticides increase the chances of a child getting cancer by one and a half to three times higher than if mothers were not exposed to the pesticides,” says Candy Zaranyika, a member of the Coalition Advocating for Pesticide Safety in Tulare County.
Advocates delivered the study along with a list of demands to the state agency. They’re calling on county ag commissioners to notify residents when these chemicals are being used.
“We want to stop pesticide secrecy,” Zaranyika says. “ We demand the right to know in advance what, when and where harmful pesticides like these will be applied.”
She says CAPS, the Central California Environmental Justice Network and community leaders are also pushing for state legislators to ban the 13 pesticides identified in the UCLA study.