{"id":38539,"date":"2025-05-28T00:01:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T04:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=38539"},"modified":"2025-05-29T12:38:50","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T16:38:50","slug":"racial-disparities-in-exposure-to-ag-pesticides-documented-while-trump-administration-dismantles-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2025\/05\/racial-disparities-in-exposure-to-ag-pesticides-documented-while-trump-administration-dismantles-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Racial Disparities in Exposure to Ag Pesticides Documented while Trump Administration Dismantles Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, May 28, 2025)\u00a0A study<\/a> in Birth Defects Research<\/em> bolsters existing evidence that agricultural workers, and specifically Hispanic workers in California, are disproportionately bearing the burden of pesticide exposure. Caroline Cox, formerly of the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, and Jonathan K. London, PhD of the University of California, Davis, examine how currently-used agricultural pesticides unequally affect communities along racial and ethnic gradients. Ms. Cox is a member of Beyond Pesticides\u2019 board.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Using 2022 data from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) and the U.S. Census Bureau, the researchers analyzed county, census tract, and school district data for the percentage of non-Hispanic White population in each population unit and determined the total agricultural use of commercial formulations of pesticides in the same units. CDPR reporting system\u2019s granular data, including application locations at a resolution of one square mile, and the specific products, dates, and amounts of pesticides used, allows comparison of the data with demographic records. The results show that Hispanics\u2019 exposure status is robust, independent of current or past data or \u201cindividual pesticides of public health concern.\u201d Pesticides that harm reproductive health were strikingly concentrated among Hispanic populations.<\/p>\r\n

There is abundant evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in exposure to environmental hazards. A University of California, Berkeley study<\/a> from 2015, for example, found that Hispanics were six times more likely than non-Hispanic Whites to live in zip codes most affected by such hazards, followed by African Americans, Native Americans, and Asian\/Pacific Islanders. Pesticide use and toxic chemical releases were the hazards most unequally distributed. As Beyond Pesticides noted last year<\/a>, \u201c83 percent of farmworkers consider themselves Hispanic\/Latino.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The authors observe that mitigating such workers\u2019 risk has been obstructed by the agricultural industry\u2019s resistance to state pesticide regulations\u2019 scope and enforcement. Moreover, they state, federal law imposes stricter limits on pesticide residues in food than on worker exposures. This illustrates the skew in social priorities \u2013 while pesticide residues in food should certainly be as low as possible (Beyond Pesticides advocates complete elimination), the population of people who grow, harvest, and process everyone\u2019s food should be equally protected.<\/p>\r\n

There are three other variables strongly associated with unequal pesticide use patterns: income, education level, and the prevalence of agricultural employment. In our 2024 analysis<\/a> cited above, we found that \u201cagricultural workers usually earn less than $20,000 per year. It\u2019s difficult for them to find jobs other than field labor, as there is almost no upward mobility in agriculture and many of their skills are not transferable to other occupations.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The authors note that California has had a statutory definition of environmental justice since 1970, and CDPR includes a commitment to it in its strategic plan. CDPR has also set a goal of eliminating the use of \u201cpriority pesticides\u201d by 2050. Although that list has yet to be determined, CDPR\u2019s sustainable pest management roadmap<\/a> calls priority pesticides \u201ca subset of high-risk pesticides\u201d having \u201cactive ingredients that are highly hazardous and\/or formulations or uses that pose a likelihood of, or are known to cause, significant or widespread human and\/or ecological impacts from their use.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The Cox-London study includes 1,3-dichloropropene, chloropicrin, glyphosate, malathion, paraquat, and sulfur, selected because each is considered of public health concern in California. The first four have been classified as carcinogens and variously associated with many other health harms, including asthma, lowered children\u2019s IQ scores, liver damage, and cognitive impairment. Paraquat is acutely toxic in very small amounts. According to a 2016 Centers for Disease Control report<\/a>, elemental sulfur (the most heavily applied pesticide in California) and glyphosate were tied as the third and fourth most frequently reported chemicals causing acute pesticide injury. Beyond Pesticides reported<\/a> last September on a study showing that Latinx children from rural farmworker families suffer more DNA damage from organophosphate pesticide exposure than children from urban families.<\/p>\r\n

California\u2019s enshrined commitment to environmental justice, the authors note, is not perfect. However, it may serve as a bulwark against the Trump administration\u2019s abrupt and complete abandonment of the principle. Trump has dismissed 168 employees<\/a> in the EPA\u2019s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights; axed at least 384 environmental and climate justice grants<\/a> from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022; and plans to close<\/a> all of the environmental justice offices at EPA\u2019s regional centers.<\/p>\r\n

There is already national pushback. See Beyond Pesticides\u2019 April 9 news brief and call to action<\/a>, detailing an effort by ten Democratic U.S. senators to prevent the dismantlement of the Biden administration\u2019s considerable efforts to improve environmental justice. As one industry-aligned law firm put it<\/a>, \u201cThe regulated community should prepare for \u2018blue state\u2019-led regulators and attorneys general to pursue a vigorous counter-response to the Trump administration\u2019s policies, which may include heightened enforcement actions, new state and local EJ rules, and added staffing for state environmental agencies.\u201d Non-governmental environmental justice advocates are also working against<\/a> the Trump administration\u2019s attempts to erase both the strong evidence of injustice and policies to address it.<\/p>\r\n

At its most basic level, environmental justice is simply the principle that the risks as well as the benefits of human practices involved in producing everyone\u2019s requirements for life and driving our economic engines should be evenly distributed. This is nothing less than the same truth enshrined in U.S. constitutional commitments to equality and justice for all.<\/p>\r\n

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Sources:<\/strong>
\r\nRacial and Ethnic Disparities in California’s Use of Agricultural Pesticides
\r\nCaroline Cox and Jonathan K London
\r\nBirth Defects Research,<\/em> 2025
\r\nhttps:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/share\/author\/NZXBBRWHQYDDIJH8WJUZ?target=10.1002\/bdr2.2480<\/a>
\r\n
\r\nHighlighting the Connection\u2014Environmental Racism and the Agricultural Industry Through History
\r\nBeyond Pesticides, June 9, 2022
\r\nhttps:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2022\/06\/highlighting-the-connection-environmental-racism-and-the-agricultural-industry-through-history\/<\/a>
\r\n
\r\nDisproportionate Pesticide Harm Is Racial Injustice
\r\nBeyond Pesticides Retrospective
\r\nJanuary 5, 2021<\/p>\r\n

Disproportionate Pesticide Hazards to Farmworkers and People of Color Documented. . .Again<\/a><\/blockquote>