California is on the move to keep farmers from using pesticides near schools. FM89’s Ezra David Romero reports.
A proposed ruling announced this week would limit the time growers across the state will be able to spray pesticides within a quarter mile of schools and day care centers from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. This is all part of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s plan to keep kids safe.
"They’re about to drop off their kids," says Charlotte Fedipe with DPR. "They see a plane going overhead spraying stuff. They don’t know what it is. Often it’s fertilizer. But is it fertilizer or is it a chemical? Can it harm them?”
Fedipe says the ruling would also require growers to let schools know when and what they spray their fields with. Even still Paul Towers with the Pesticide Action Network doesn’t think the plan goes far enough.
“They still fail to protect children nearly enough from pesticides that are linked to brain damage, cancer and hormonal disruption," Towers says.
Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobson says some growers won’t be happy, but he says many of them are already using these practices.
“Right now it looks like something that hopefully is going to be fairly close to the rules and regulations that we have in existence here," says Jacobsen.
The ruling won’t go into effect until late 2017. Comments on the plan will be taken until November 17th.
