The California Department of Pesticide Regulation will host a workshop in Monterey County to hear ideas on how to notify residents living around agricultural fields when 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.
“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 two workshops 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 Monterey County workshop will take place from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on April 12 at the Spreckels Veterans Memorial Building, 90 5th Street, Spreckels.
For more information, visit the California Department of Pesticide Regulation here.
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