09
Sep
California Launches Updated Notification of Pesticide Spraying, Farmworkers Call for Organic on Fields Near Homes and Schools
(Beyond Pesticides, September 9, 2025) SprayDays California, the pesticide notification and mapping tool run by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), was updated in late August after public backlash (including from farmworkers), which identified inadequate notice of pesticide use to those who work in or live in proximity to agricultural fields. According to a DPR press release from August 28, these changes include attempts to bring down barriers for users so that, in the words of DPR Director Karen Morrison, the department can “provide Californians with access to information and services.”
While public health advocates view notification as a step that may allow people to leave a treatment area or take shelter to reduce exposure, groups continue to express concerns about a focus on notification to the exclusion of addressing the root causes of exposure—chemical-intensive agriculture, despite the viability of organic compatible practices and products. The groups criticize the continuous registration of pesticide active ingredients and product formulations without considering widely available practices and nonchemical and nature-based alternatives to pest management. These include regenerative organic principles and practices that draw inspiration from Indigenous land management and agroecological systems that have thrived in coexistence with nature.
Recent Updates
There are two main changes to California SprayDays from the original proposal, according to the DPR press release. They include:
- “Map-Based Sign-Up: In addition to entering an address, users can now subscribe to notifications by selecting a one-square-mile section on a map, making it easier for those in unincorporated areas to sign up and receive the same information they would if using a recognized address within that section.
- Recent Application Visibility: The pesticide map now highlights one-square-mile sections where applications were scheduled within the past four days. While this information was already available in the system, it is now easier for users to see where recent activity may have occurred.”
DPR announced that over 3,700 users have signed up for notification alerts in heavily agricultural counties, including Kern, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Ventura, and Fresno, with more than 30,000 notifications sent to subscribed users in California. The Center for Farmworker Families estimates that roughly 500,000 to 800,000 farmworkers reside in California as of late 2024, which is roughly corroborated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service’s data finding that California farmers hired 808,000 workers during the week of July 7-13, 2024, “up 3 percent from the July 2023 reference week.”
In addition to DPR not embracing an alternatives assessment in its pesticide registration program, not all people have readily available access to a telephone or computer to subscribe or receive the notification messages from the SprayDays program.
Farmworkers are continuing to speak up on pesticide use in their communities, even when government leaders fail to take a comprehensive approach to pesticide registration and restrictions. In late August, two farmworker activists in Watsonville, California, Omar Dieguez and Providence Martinez Alaniz, began a 30-day food fast with the goal “to pressure local berry growers to transition to organic farming practices and put an end to the harms caused by pesticide use.” These “local berry growers” include Driscoll’s, a titan of the blueberry industry operating both organic and chemical-intensive fields. According to reporting by Santa Cruz Local, “The hunger strike is an escalation of a local movement against the use of pesticides near schools, headed by the Campaign for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture. State law prohibits the use of pesticides within a quarter mile of a school-on-school days, but gaseous fumigants can drift in the wind for miles.”
One highly toxic fumigant, 1,3-D (Telone), is going through the rulemaking process currently “for regulations to restrict 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) use to address cancer risks for occupational bystanders,” according to an August 21 DPR press release. This move comes after years of advocacy, public comments (including from Beyond Pesticides), investigations led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG), and legislative efforts to address runaway pesticide use impacting farmworkers and their children. One of the issues identified is EPA’s failure to conduct an adequate and independent assessment of the cancer effects of 1,3-D.
OIG’s original report, The EPA Needs to Improve the Transparency of Its Cancer-Assessment Process for Pesticides, was issued in 2022 and concluded that EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) engages in secret meetings with industry, elevates unqualified individuals to decision-making roles, uses an untested scientific approach, fails to conduct a simple literature review, and neglects public transparency. (See Daily News here.)
Background
Growing out of the passage of AB 617 Community Emissions Reduction Act in California, passed in 2017, farmworker safety advocates have long been advocating for a pesticide spray notification system. In late 2017, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) began implementation of AB 617, a bill enacted with the stated intent of addressing the air quality crisis in many communities of predominantly people of color, who are disproportionately harmed by toxic chemicals. While the overall goal of the law is to reduce air pollution in these communities, farmworker advocates have sought to operationalize a pesticide spraying notification system to warn communities when nearby spraying is scheduled to take place.
Based on DPR’s website, the agency began developing SprayDays California in 2021 after receiving funding in the state budget. That same year, pilot projects were voluntarily launched in four counties (Stanislaus, Riverside, Santa Cruz, and Ventura), and a two-year public outreach effort culminated in four focus groups and eight public meetings. The UC Davis Center for Regional Change conducted an independent evaluation of the notification system from the four notification pilot projects, echoing some concerns raised by local groups and Beyond Pesticides on guidance for precautionary action and communication on the level of health hazard associated with exposure to the spray. (See here.) In 2023, DPR moved to propose regulations to implement this system across the state, with final regulations approved in December 2024.
SprayDays California requires that “restricted material pesticides” must be added to the notification system, with a 48-hour minimum notice expected for soil fumigants and a 24-hour notice for all other pesticides in this category. The notifications are sent via email and text messages, with opt-out options available depending on the user’s needs. The pesticide map component of this system organizes pesticide applications into one-square-mile sections, including relevant information, such as pesticide product name, active ingredient(s) name(s), application method (ground, aerial, fumigation, other), number of treated acres, and EPA registration number.
For more information on the history of SprayDays, see the Daily News here when the program was initially launched earlier this year.
Previous Research on Pesticide Drift
There is increasing evidence that pesticides have significant potential for drift and subsequent contamination of nearby environments and people.
Fifteen currently used pesticides (CUPs) and four metabolites (breakdown or transformation products—TP) were found in the marine atmosphere over the Atlantic Ocean in a research study published in Environmental Pollution. Three legacy (banned) pesticides were also discovered. The researchers found empirical evidence for pesticide drift over remarkably long distances to remote environments. The CUPs include the insecticides bifenthrin, carbofuran, flonicamid, and flupyradifurone; the fungicides cyflufenamid, dicloran, dimethomorph, fenpropidin, fluopyram, and tebuconazole; the herbicides clopyralid, fenuron, flumioxazin, isoxaflutole, and metamitron; the transformation products metalaxyl metabolite CGA 62826, metolachlor ethane sulfonic acid, metolachlor oxanilic acid, and prothioconazole desthio; and the legacy pesticides 2,4’-DDE, 4,4’-DDD, and hexachloro-benzene. (See Daily News here.)
In a study that may hit closer to home, researchers have detected eighty pesticides (35 insecticides, 29 fungicides, and 11 herbicides, and metabolites) in the ambient air of a rural region of Spain (Valencia) between 2007 and 2024. Despite these dramatic findings, the authors conclude that there is “no [observable] cancer risk,” “no inhalation risk for adults,” and only one pesticide concentration (the insecticide chlorpyrifos) showing “a potential risk to toddlers.” However, the authors did not conduct an aggregate risk assessment that would typically consider all routes of exposure to the individual pesticides detected, including through water, food, and landscapes. (See Daily News here.)
For further coverage of policy developments and scientific research on pesticide drift, see its dedicated Daily News section here.
Call to Action
As highlighted on the Campaign for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture (CORA) website, concerned citizens “want the fields near our homes and schools to be converted to organic in order to protect the health of our children and community.” You can take action here by asking your mayor to lead a transition to practices and product procurement that protect workers with criteria that meet organic standards in landscaping and food purchasing. By transitioning to organic product procurement and land management away from petrochemical materials, this effort to protect workers aligns with broader goals to protect public health and biodiversity, and mitigate the climate crisis.
Workers, as well as farmers and consumers, are also facing the existential threat as chemical companies and their allies in Congress continue to attack the viability of “failure-to-warn” liability claims that hold pesticide manufacturers accountable for their harmful products. Beyond Pesticides joined 50 other organizations and businesses across the country to call on Congress to oppose legislation that shields pesticide companies from lawsuits and limits states’ authority to regulate pesticides. (See Daily News here.) Eliminating failure-to-warn claims takes away one of the three legs of accountability in terms of federal pesticide law (registration, labeling, and litigation), allowing manufacturers to hide behind existing weak labels and registration reviews for active ingredients currently on the market, as well as potential future ones that may be submitted for EPA approval.
See here for the joint statement, Protect the Right of Farmers, Consumers, and Workers to Hold Pesticide Companies Accountable for Their Harmful Product. You can also see here for the associated press release, and here to learn more about the dangers of pesticide preemption and failure to warn. You can also take action here by telling your U.S. Senator to co-sponsor S. 2324, the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act, to create a federal right of action for anyone who is harmed by a toxic pesticide, serving as a potential checkmate to the state-by-state effort led by Modern Ag Alliance to strip away failure-to-warn claims, which are under state-level legal jurisdiction.
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
Sources: California Department of Pesticide Regulation, Santa Cruz Local, CORA, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service
