Stockton (California) Record

March 17, 2006

Stronger pesticide laws urged

Hank Shaw
Capitol Bureau Chief

 

SACRAMENTO - State pesticide regulators hope new pesticide rules under debate this month will stop inspectors from performing perfunctory checkups, issuing paltry fines and fostering a culture of indifference - problems that have destroyed the health of thousands of California farm workers.

Farm workers and their advocates pleaded their case for stronger pesticide enforcement at a hearing Thursday, while agricultural commissioners - California's front line "crop cops" in the enforcement battle - said the new rules are strong enough.

A Record investigation last year found widespread problems with enforcement of California's pesticide laws; violators in some counties were almost never fined, even for misuse of pesticides that led to illnesses.

San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties were among those counties. Yet in recent months, each county has caught more violators and levied bigger fines than they had in years.

One case involving Ripon-based Golden West Nuts has been sent to the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office and could send the suspects to prison.

A bill championed by Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews, D-Tracy, that would have further tightened enforcement passed the Legislature last year. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill.

Schwarzenegger's veto message said he wanted to see if the state Department of Pesticide Regulation's tougher regulations would work. Because the wheels of state bureaucracy turn slowly, those rules are only now being put into place officially.

Thursday's hearing was a chance for the public to comment on the proposals, which would limit county agricultural commissioners' ability to let violators off with just a warning or small fine.

No growers spoke at the hearing, and Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner Jerry Prieto - president of the commissioners' state association - spoke only briefly.

"We support strong and uniform enforcement in California," he said.

Marysville's Benito Salomon was one of those who said the state's proposal does not go far enough.

Salomon said his health was ruined after repeated exposure to pesticides while working for seven years in Yuba County orchards. After a final incident, he was left shaking, with crippled lungs and failing kidneys. His employer was never fined.

Salomon said through a translator that he never saw an agricultural inspector visit the farms he worked and was never provided with water to wash pesticide residue from his hands.

He said laborers were often required to work in recently sprayed orchards, but not before workers were "encouraged" to sign a waiver absolving their employer in case they got sick. Such waivers are illegal.

"All of us perform a job," Salomon said. "We deserve to be treated with respect."

California Rural Legal Assistance lobbyist Martha Guzman lauded the state for bolstering enforcement but said it still leaves open too many instances in which employers can expose workers to low levels of pesticides without sanction.

"Issuing a warning for lack of protection is not enough today," Guzman said.

She said today's pesticide damage is slow, quiet and steady - unlike the ferocious poisons used in decades past. Lots of little accidents, the kind that would draw no fine under even the new rules, still expose workers to a foul brew of poisons that can cause an array of health problems.

"The culture that allows for this to happen is dependent on the culture of enforcement," she said. "These regulations do not go far enough to changing that culture."

Guzman also said the new rules do not give someone who was sprayed the right to appeal a fine or warning given by an agricultural commissioner, even though the company fined does have such an appeal.

DPR spokesman Glenn Brank said that's true, but the victim could still file suit in civil court. He said he was glad so many people spoke at Thursday's hearings.

"We are looking for all the information we can to help us fine-tune these regulations," he said.

Two more hearings are scheduled for this month; one in Salinas, the other in Bakersfield. The rules are spelled out in detail at www.cdpr.ca.gov. Click on "regulations" in the lower right corner of the site.