California Pesticide Agency Hopelessly Captured by Industry, Critics Charge (insideclimatenews.org)

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Farmworkers, their loved ones and advocates lined up out the door of a California state legislative hearing room this week to urge elected officials to hold pesticide regulators accountable for failing to protect their communities from life-threatening chemicals. Women spoke of being sprayed while working next to fields treated by crop dusters and seeing coworkers caught in drifting pesticide clouds. They spoke of suffering from asthma and liver disease and watching family members die of cancer. They spoke of being exposed to pesticides while pregnant, having children born prematurely, with birth defects, autism, ADHD or other neurodevelopmental problems. Children of farmworkers described working alongside their parents at age 11, sometimes with even younger kids, to help their families afford food and pay bills. The details of their challenges differed but converged on a common refrain: California’s pesticide regulatory system is broken. California pesticide regulators allow growers to use nearly three dozen chemicals that are not approved for use due to health concerns in scores of countries around the world, including nations in the European Union, Asia, Africa and Latin America. They have been “re-evaluating” the fumigant chloropicrin since 2001 after monitors indicated that air levels beyond treated fields and...