Effective Jan. 1, California farmers will be prohibited from spraying pesticides within a quarter-mile of public schools and licensed day-care centers from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on school days under a rule issued by the state Department of Pesticide Regulation. Regulators say the rule is among the strictest in the country, according to The Associated Press.
The new regulation will apply to crop dusters, fumigants, air blasters used in orchards and most dust and powder pesticides that could be blown onto school grounds, said the AP. The pesticide department said the rule “will help further protect the health of children, teachers and school staff from unintended pesticide exposure.”
The California rule is the first statewide standard of its kind, according to the pesticide department. Some California counties already require buffer zones. Under the new regulation, growers will be required to report annually on the pesticides they expect to use new schools.
Just over a year ago, the department proposed the controls on usage of pesticides near schools to mixed reviews. The state Department of Public Health said growers applied more than half a million pounds of carcinogens, reproductive poisons and other hazardous pesticides within a quarter-mile of public schools each year.
In 2015, The Nation, in partnership with FERN, reported that Latino schoolchildren faced disproportionally high rates of exposure to toxic pesticides in California. An analysis of pesticide usage found that half of the state’s usage of pesticides occurred in 5 percent of the state’s zip codes. Latinos made up nearly 70 percent of the population in the 10 zip codes with the highest usage.