SALINAS CALIFORNIAN

November 8, 2009

Salinas Valley schools perched near pesticide-sprayed farmland

Despite safety regulations, some worry the two don't mix – period

BY LESLIE GRIFFY

When schools use pesticides on campus, they post a warning a day before.

But when acres of farmland next to classrooms are sprayed with industrial-grade chemicals, often no sign goes up.

"If you spray pesticides on school grounds, you have to do all sorts of things," said Sheila Steinberg, a California State University, Humboldt, sociology professor who co-authored a study mapping pesticide use in Monterey County. "As soon as you are on the other side of the chain-link fence in a field, there aren't as many rules."

While the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner's office often restricts pesticide use near sensitive locations, such as schools, beyond what the law requires, some worry the limits aren't enough.

Gonzales resident Aurora Valdez said she's fearful pesticides sprayed near Gonzales High School, where her kids attend classes, will harm her teenage sons. She said she often prays to the Virgin of Guadalupe to keep her sons from experiencing what she said her husband, Francisco, went through 12 years ago after being exposed to pesticides.

"I worry constantly about pesticides," Valdez said in Spanish. Francisco Valdez was sprayed with the chemicals in an accident; months later he still suffered from red eyes, nausea and had a stroke, which the family attributes to the pesticide exposure.

Grounds for those concerns are highlighted in Steinberg's study, which showed areas near day-care facilities, schools and other kid-friendly places that are routinely sprayed, and in a petition filed by a coalition of environmentalists and farmworker groups urging the federal government to better regulate where the chemicals end up.

Steinberg and her husband, Steve Steinberg, a geospatial sciences professor at Humboldt, coupled state data on where pesticides are used in Monterey and Tulare counties with maps pinpointing schools and other locations. Community members vetted the maps.

The results appear alarming. In the middle of blotches of red — used to denote heavy pesticide use — sit schools.

In the Salinas area, 62 percent of the agricultural land is located within a quarter-mile of a school, the mapping revealed.

"We are always concerned about the safety of children," said Ron Eastwood, communication officer for the Monterey County Office of Education. "If we do receive a report of something like spraying too close to a school, we do take precautions."

Eastwood said he hasn't seen the study, but the Office of Education works closely with county pesticide regulators.

Studies show that children are more susceptible to effects of pesticides than adults because children are still developing and often spend more time outdoors. Researchers worry that even spraying close to where children play is dangerous because small droplets of pesticide carried by the wind can waft into sensitive areas.

"I think that on a daily basis, we dodge a bullet," said Michael Marsh, an attorney who works on pesticide cases for California Rural Legal Assistance, a social justice law organization that works with low-income rural individuals.

Existing rules

Other experts say the study's findings may not indicate a real problem.

"One can't assume there is some kind of problem," said George Alexeeff, deputy director for scientific affairs at the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. "It's a very useful study, but it just lays out a first layer of information."

The scope of the problem depends on the types of pesticides used and the extent to which people in the area are exposed, Alexeeff said.

State law allows county agricultural commissioners to create quarter-mile buffer zones around schools. Rules in Monterey County go a step further, Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Karen Stahlman said, by prohibiting the use of all pesticides within 500 feet — a football field is 300 feet — of a school during school hours and for the hour before and after classes.

To further limit public exposure, officials examine areas where "restricted" materials — pesticides deemed dangerous enough to require extra review — will be used before issuing a permit.

They check for schools and day-care centers, as well as bus stops nearby. The office can limit spraying to nights or weekends and enforce a pesticide-free buffer, Stahlman said.

The Office of Education works with the commissioner's office, Eastwood said.

If a custodian who is on campus early notices signs of pesticide on a campus, Eastwood said, that person would raise the alarm and students would be prevented from entering the area. But, he added, it's "not a common" complaint.

Growers must inform the Agricultural Commissioner's office 24 hours before using restricted chemicals. With non-restricted chemicals, landowners must meet other use requirements, including limiting spraying to times of little wind.

Monterey County monitors more applications of restricted pesticides than required by state law. In about 7 percent of the occasions these chemicals are used locally, Stahlman's staff observes their application, compared with a 5 percent requirement set by the state.

Health history

Still, Marsh worries the rules aren't enough to protect children and that preventing drift is a nearly impossible task.

"We all know that the Salinas Valley has huge winds blowing through the area," he said, noting that pesticides sprayed an hour and a half before school could easily wind up on playgrounds when children are there.

Still, it's hard to track the ultimate impact of small, daily exposures.

Only pesticide exposure that leads to a doctor's visit is tracked and reported to the state. People who don't seek medical assistance for itchy eyes or nausea caused by pesticide exposure don't end up in any official statistic.

For the two-year period of 2006 and 2007, there were 107 pesticide-related doctor's examinations in Monterey County, according to the most recent data from the state Department of Pesticide Regulation. That number does not include a 2005 incident that exposed about 335 people in north Salinas to chloropicrin, a fumigant used on strawberry fields. Fourteen people sought medical treatment and the grower was fined $180,000.

Most pesticide exposure cases in Monterey County aren't caused by drift, said Bruce Welden, supervisor at the county's Department of Hazardous Materials Management.

More often, doctors report incidents involving children who get into household pesticides, such as roach traps or chemicals used to clear a yard of weeds, Welden said.

Even without the reports, Welden knows there is a need for a balancing act.

"We have a lot of people who live in close proximity to agricultural land," he said. "There is always going be a tension there."

That tension was highlighted in a petition Farmworker Justice and Earthjustice jointly filed against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in October.

In it, the groups allege that the EPA has done nothing to protect rural children from pesticide drift.

The Valdez family has worked hard to protect its home from drift. Since the former Salinas farmworker became ill after the pesticide accident more than a decade ago, he worked with dozens of neighbors to limit their exposure to the chemicals.

Three years ago, the family, along with dozens of neighbors, asked the Gonzales City Council to build a barrier between the fields and the houses near 10th Street, where the Valdez family lives. The barrier would prevent wind from pushing pesticide residue into their homes.

After a few weeks of lobbying the City Council, the Valdez family and the neighbors got their wish.

"The barrier is tall and it protects us," Francisco Valdez, 60, said in Spanish. "We can feel it. It's not the same. Before the wall was installed, the air would blow the pesticides to our house."

That type of neighborhood work is needed, environmentalists say because, while the EPA adopted regulations banning some chemicals in urban and suburban communities, those same pesticides are allowed in rural areas.

"The EPA started to regulate pesticides, but they forgot drift," said Earthjustice attorney Janette Brimmer. "The EPA has completely failed in its legal obligation."

No specific federal laws prohibit spraying near schools.

An EPA spokeswoman said the agency would evaluate the new petition and take action to ensure public health is protected.