Protecting Schoolchildren in Monterey County from Toxic Pesticide Exposure

Monterey County officials, under the purview of state regulators, have repeatedly approved permits allowing fumigations in the vicinity of Ohlone Elementary School, Pajaro Middle School, and Hall District Elementary School, with disregard for their cumulative health impacts and without a meaningful evaluation of feasible, safer alternatives.

Fumigants cause severe and immediate health effects, including difficulty breathing, as well as long-term effects including cancer.

Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, Safe Ag Safe Schools, Center for Farmworker Families, Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, and Californians for Pesticide Reform, represented by Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit challenging the California Department of Pesticide Regulation and Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner’s repeat rubberstamping of applications to use highly toxic and legally restricted pesticides, including the fumigants chloropicrin and 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D), near the three schools in the Pajaro Valley of Monterey County.

Exposing Latino schoolchildren in Monterey County to especially harmful pesticides amounts to racial discrimination and a violation of civil rights, the California Environmental Quality Act, and interrelated provisions of the Food and Agricultural Code. Yet every year, the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner, under DPR’s purview, allows farms to apply close to three million pounds of chloropicrin and 1,3-D — this, plus an additional 6 million pounds of other pesticides sprayed in Monterey County annually.

There is a well-documented history of fumigants drifting far beyond intended application sites and leading to mass-casualty events sickening farmworkers and community members. Studies link fumigant exposure, both individually and cumulatively, to serious acute and chronic health harms like fetal death and cancer. Studies also confirm that chloropicrin and 1,3-D may be even more toxic when their active ingredients interact. Unsafe-for-human-health fumigant levels have been recorded by an Ohlone Elementary air monitoring station for each of the twelve years in which it has been operational.