The California Department of Pesticide Regulation is holding a workshop in Fresno to hear ideas from various stakeholder groups on how to notify residents living around agricultural fields, when certain types of pesticides, known as fumigants, are applied.
Fumigants are gaseous pesticides injected into the ground before a crop is planted. Increasingly, the public wants to know what chemicals are being applied around them. California grows much of the nation’s produce and growers rely on these chemicals to attack pests that would otherwise destroy their crops.
While the use of these chemicals by growers is strictly regulated the current rules that govern what triggers a notification vary depending on the fumigant applied and the county.
“People have become a lot more conscious about what chemicals are used to grow their food in the fields that are around them.
And it is essential that we take the time to listen about how best to notify them when these pesticides are used,” said DPR Director Brian Leahy.
DPR is now seeking to standardize the notification of these rules on a statewide basis by creating a new regulation.The workshop will enable the department to gather input from stakeholders to help determine what notification is appropriate for these fumigations.
The new regulation DPR is developing would lay out how people living near areas to be fumigated should be notified. In particular DPR would like to hear:
- When and under what circumstances such notifications should be made;
- What is the appropriate distance, between the treated field and residents, that requires notification;
- What other information the notice should include.
The Fresno workshop is scheduled for April 14, 2016, 6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. at the Mosqueda Community Center on 4670 E. Butler Avenue.
