BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – California’s nation-leading agriculture industry pumps more than 180 million pounds of pesticides into fields each year. Now, a notification system will alert residents when some of those pesticides are applied near homes and schools.
“Spray Days California” has been under development for the past four years with the state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation. The digital notification system is the first-of-its-kind in the United States, according to the agency.
Advocates in the San Joaquin Valley – where the vast majority of pesticides in the state are applied – applauded the system’s official release this week.
“‘Spray Days’ is something that is very important, not only to farmworker communities but to anyone that has pesticide applications near their homes, the schools that their children go to or their places of work,” Cesar Aguirre, an associate director with the Central California Environmental Justice Network, told KVPR.
Farm groups, though, say the new notification system could make them a target for protestors and delays. California farms are already subject to a lengthy permit process before applying pesticides, according to Isabella Quinonez, an assistant policy director with the California Farm Bureau.
“This isn’t an additional safety measure. This just gives people more information,” she said.
Five of the top six counties with the most pesticide application are located in the Valley, according to a state report. A growing body of research has also linked chronic pesticide exposure to increased rates of adverse birth outcomes.
Twenty two percent of adults and 10% of children are breathing detectable levels of pesticides, according to an air-quality survey that UC Davis conducted in the Valley last year.
Aguirre says that’s why the notification system is necessary, so rural residents can take precautions to protect themselves.
“We don't think this is restrictive in any way. We don't think this is anything that's meant to demonize or villainize anyone,” he said. “This is simply basic respect to notify folks whenever there are restricted materials applied next to them, so that they could take precautionary measures.”
He added that the “Spray Days” system is modeled after a pilot program in the Kern County city of Shafter.
How 'Spray Days' works
Residents can enroll in the notification system via the Spray Days website.
Once an address is added, a digital map shows whether a pesticide spray is scheduled within the next 24 or 48 hours. Multiple addresses can be registered for alerts.
The alert system only applies to pesticides which the state has labeled as “restricted material pesticides.” Those are considered especially toxic to humans but represent a small fraction of the pesticides that are sprayed on farms, according to Department of Pesticide Regulation.
The state is also pushing for the adoption of pesticides it considers safer. Those include so-called “biological pesticides,” which enlist insects and microbes that naturally prey on farmyard pests, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
While more farms have turned to organic and safer forms of pesticides in recent years, Quinonez, with the farm bureau, says those can be costlier and could be less effective than traditional pesticide formulas.
