The Pesticide Drift Exposure Response Act, or SB 391 (Florez-Escutia), is a California act that was passed in 2005. This act was put into place in order to help victims of California's pesticide drift problem.
California has a large agricultural business that produces more than 400 different items for consumers. [1] The agriculture industry in California also produces a large amount of produce for the United States, including a third of the US's vegetables and two-thirds of the US's fruits/nuts. [1] Due to this large amount of produce production there is also a large amount of pesticide use.
According to a data report from California's Department of Pesticide Regulation, in 2017 there were a total of 205 million pounds of applied active ingredients, chemicals in pesticides that control pests, [2] and there were 104 million acres treated in total. [3]
One significant event that led to the rise of pesticide drift awareness and the inclusion of this senate bill was a pesticide drift incident that occurred in Earlimart, California, in November, 1999. During this incident the mist from the pesticide known as sectagon 42 flew into the San Joaquin Valley town of Earlimart. [4] This incident forced 150 people to evacuate the town and 29 people were sent to the hospital. [4] Those who were taken to the hospital suffered from nausea, headaches, vomiting, etc. [4] During this incident the United Farm Workers also commented on the danger of the pesticide that were exposed to workers. As it caused both cancer and birth defects in laboratory animals under the 1986 proposition 65. [5] They also stated that this pesticide led to severe cases of asthma in an area that had a spill of this pesticide. [5] Therefore, there was concern over both the short and long-term impacts of this pesticide drift on the people of Earlimart. [5] During this incident, residents of Earlimart that were affected by the pesticide were taken to a nearby school, stripped, and hosed down. [6]
The Earlimart incident resulted in organization for better regulation and awareness regarding pesticides.
“The Earlimart incident really helped to put pesticide drift on the map, partially because there was media coverage of the way that people were treated after the incident, and real concerns about how effective the emergency response system was at that time.”
— Jill Harrison (assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado and author of “Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice.”)
Teresa De Anda was a resident of Earlimart who started to help in the organization of the Tulare County community after the Earlimart incident. [6] De Anda started to attend meetings with groups like the United Farm Workers, and gathered first hand information from residents of a similar pesticide accident in Arvin in 2002. [6] De Anda other groups continued to advocate for establishing plans in the case of pesticide drift occurring, as there was a lack of proper protocols. [6] This work from De Anda, her Earlimart group, and other groups resulted in the creation of Senate Bill 391 by State Senator Dean Florez. [6]
Senate Bill 391 added Sections 12996.5, 12997.5, and 12997.7 to the Food and Agricultural Code, and focused on pesticides. Before focusing on new laws this bill highlights existing laws that are already put into place that relates to pesticide regulation. This includes how the Department of Pesticide Regulation is responsible for the enforcement of pesticides laws and regulations, and that there is a Department of Pesticide Regulation Fund. [7] There was also existing law that required the reporting of pesticide poisoning, and that the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment would make a program that alerts physicians about symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment required for those affected. [7]
New laws in this bill stated that those who violated pesticide provisions would be held responsible for costs to those injured or those who have resulting illness. [7] The bill states that the California Environmental Protection Agency needs to establish minimum standard protocols for amending, which also meant that the certified uniform program agency would follow these standards for amending area plans. [7] Since these local agencies would comply with these requirements there would also be state mandated local program. [7] The state would be required to reimburse local agencies and school districts for costs mandated by the state, which would be reimbursed with the newly created State Mandates Claims Fund. [7]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate.
Chlorpyrifos (CPS), also known as chlorpyrifos ethyl, is an organophosphate pesticide that has been used on crops, animals, and buildings, and in other settings, to kill several pests, including insects and worms. It acts on the nervous systems of insects by inhibiting the acetylcholinesterase enzyme. Chlorpyrifos was patented in 1966 by Dow Chemical Company.
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The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is a United States federal law that set up the basic U.S. system of pesticide regulation to protect applicators, consumers, and the environment. It is administered and regulated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the appropriate environmental agencies of the respective states. FIFRA has undergone several important amendments since its inception. A significant revision in 1972 by the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act (FEPCA) and several others have expanded EPA's present authority to oversee the sales and use of pesticides with emphasis on the preservation of human health and protection of the environment by "(1) strengthening the registration process by shifting the burden of proof to the chemical manufacturer, (2) enforcing compliance against banned and unregistered products, and (3) promulgating the regulatory framework missing from the original law".
Dean Raymond Florez is an American former politician who served as a California State Senator from the 16th Senate District, who served from 2002 until the end of his second term in November 2010.
Dicamba is a selective systemic herbicide first registered in 1967. Brand names for formulations of this herbicide include Dianat, Banvel, Diablo, Oracle and Vanquish. This chemical compound is a chlorinated derivative of o-anisic acid. It has been described as a "widely used, low-cost, environmentally friendly herbicide that does not persist in soils and shows little or no toxicity to wildlife and humans."
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The light brown apple moth is a leafroller moth belonging to the lepidopteran family Tortricidae. The moth was confirmed to be present in mainland United States in 2007, principally along the West Coast. The State of California and the US Department of Agriculture quickly imposed agricultural quarantine measures and decided to use aerial spraying to try to eradicate the moth. This led to substantial public controversy and claims of adverse health effects. Aerial spraying was discontinued in 2008. Trapping, monitoring, and inspection efforts were reduced or eliminated in 2012 due to budget problems.
Pesticide drift, also known as spray drift refers to the unintentional diffusion of pesticides toward nontarget species. It is one of the most negative effects of pesticide application. Drift can damage human health, environment, and crops. Together with runoff and leaching, drift is a mechanism for agricultural pollution. Some drift results from contamination of sprayer tanks.
Pesticides in the United States are used predominantly by the agricultural sector, but approximately a quarter of them are used in houses, yards, parks, golf courses, and swimming pools.
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, commonly referred to as OEHHA, is a specialized department within the cabinet-level California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) with responsibility for evaluating health risks from environmental chemical contaminants.
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation, also known as DPR or CDPR, is one of six boards and departments of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA).
Pesticide regulation in the United States is primarily a responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In America, it was not till the 1950s that pesticides were regulated in terms of their safety. The Pesticides Control Amendment (PCA) of 1954 was the first time Congress passed guidance regarding the establishment of safe limits for pesticide residues on food. It authorized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban pesticides they determined to be unsafe if they were sprayed directly on food. The Food Additives Amendment, which included the Delaney Clause, prohibited the pesticide residues from any carcinogenic pesticides in processed food. In 1959, pesticides were required to be registered.
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The Circle of Poison (COP) refers to the export of domestically banned pesticides for use on foods elsewhere, some of which returns by way of import. The "circle" is complete when the toxic chemicals that were exported are then used to grow fruit, meat, and produce that are imported and available for domestic consumption. This circle was first identified relative to the United States but the relationship also exists between other nations of the Global North and South.
Pesticide incidents in the San Joaquin Valley is a topic covering the justice and health issues of people living in the San Joaquin Valley resulting from the use of pesticides in the region. Pesticide use in the San Joaquin Valley began in the 1880s when certain insects were known to be causing harm in the region, much of whose economy is still based on the successful agriculture and farming of many different kinds of crops. Pesticides illnesses were reported sporadically during that time frame, but was not focused as a major issue until the post World War II agricultural boom in the late 1940s when pesticide poisonings became more widely publicized. Though Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and the use of chemicals in weapons during the Vietnam War led the federal government to pass restrictions on pesticide use, residents, primarily of low-income, have struggled with health impacts of pesticide use due to persistent over-spraying by agriculture companies working for profit.
Farmworkers in the United States have unique demographics, wages, working conditions, organizing, and environmental aspects. According to The National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health in Agricultural Safety, approximately 2,112,626 full-time workers were employed in production agriculture in the US in 2019 and approximately 1.4 to 2.1 million hired crop workers are employed annually on crop farms in the US. A study by the USDA found the average age of a farmworker to be 33. In 2017, the Department of Labor and Statistics found the median wage to be $23,730 a year, or $11.42 per hour.
The Earlimart pesticide poisoning refers to a November 13, 1999 pesticide drift event which occurred in the vicinity of a community in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. This event saw 24 victims sent to hospital after coming into contact with the pesticides directly, and a further 150 people were ordered to evacuate the township. Residents were exposed to the compound metham sodium, a highly toxic fumigant used in weed-targeting pesticides. The 24 poison victims suffered severe effects including vomiting, nausea, reoccurring headaches, and respiratory dysfunction. The incident is worthy of note due to its influence in contemporaneous public advocacy against pesticide use broadly, as well as a catalyst perceived to have increased awareness on pesticide drift in general. ==
Angelita C. et al. v. California Department of Pesticide Regulation is an Administrative complaint filed in June 1999 with the US Environmental Protection Agency about disproportionate harm to Latino children from toxic pesticides used near schools. It said that the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) had caused discriminatory harm to Latino children when it renewed the registration for methyl bromide in January 1999 without considering the effect on nearby schools, in some cases adjacent to the fields.
