Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/498229
This is about protecting my community," Ezekiel says. "Down the block from my home in Salinas, we have fields where they grow lettuce and strawberries. When you're talking about hazardous fumigants used in the fields, not only are my students in danger, but I'm in danger, too." How Ezekiel and other teachers mobilized on this issue, with the help of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council and other stakeholders, is a blueprint for how concerned communities statewide can push back for more pesticide protections. Sparking renewed community interest in the decades-long controversies over pesticide dangers was an April 2014 report co-sponsored by the California Department of Public Health. The study of 2,511 K-12 public schools documented agricultural pesti- cide use in 2010 near schools in 15 counties where applications of fumigants and other chemicals were heaviest. (See infographic.) California has some of the strictest regulations in the nation regarding use of agricultural pesticides near schools, the report notes, but most laws are about shielding people from acute, not long-term, exposure. It also warns that even though most pesticides are applied before and after school hours, their "chemical persistence can have implications for chronic exposure risks and delayed or chronic health outcomes." Pesticides can drift, despite lawful use by growers, and endanger nearby schools and cities. CTA mem- bers and California Federation of Teachers (CFT) activists made that point during an August 2014 labor coalition news conference held in front of the Salinas courthouse to draw attention to the state report. They demanded an increase in the size of Monterey County buffer zones around schools where highly haz- ardous pesticides are used; 72-hour notification before dangerous pesticides are used near schools; a public, online database tracking pesticide use; air monitoring and annual state studies of pesticide application near schools, child care centers and other sensitive sites; and getting farmers to use less toxic alternatives to soil fumigation and organophosphates, which they want phased out by 2020. Salinas teacher Josh Ezekiel says pesticides can threaten his students and community. (Photo by Mike Myslinski.) More than 500,000 students in the 15 counties attended school within a quarter mile of some kind of hazardous pesticide use, and 118,000 of those students went to 226 schools where the heaviest use of toxic pesticides deemed "of public health concern" — at least 319 pounds that year — was within a quarter mile. Proximity Exposure Prevalence Toxins Nearly 540,000 pounds of pesticides of concern were applied near these California public schools in 2010. The 144 different pesticides included known carcinogens, reproductive and developmental toxicants, neurotoxins, toxic air contaminants and nerve cell inhibitors. Hispanic children were 46 percent more likely than white children to attend schools where dangerous pesticides were applied nearby — and 91 percent more likely than white kids to be in schools in the highest quartile of pesticide exposure. Monterey, Fresno, Tulare and Ventura counties had some of the heaviest use of pesticides near schools in the state. near California public schools PESTICIDE USE " The same demands were then made in an urgent resolution passed by the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council that noted: "More than one in four Monterey County children attended schools within a quarter mile of highly hazardous pesticide use in 2010 — more than for any other schoolchildren in California." Labor Council Executive Director Cesar Lara wrote an Octo- ber 2014 column for the Salinas Californian newspaper about new state air sampling data showing alarming levels of fumigant pesticides — especially cancer-causing 1,3-D, known by the trade name Telone — detected at the Salinas airport and Ohlone Elementary in Watsonville. The local activist educators are part of a coalition now meeting twice a month at the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council offices in Salinas and the CFT offices in Watsonville at gatherings run by Mark Weller, a community organizer with the Oakland-based group Californians for Pesticide Reform. Having teachers involved is key, he says. 46% 144 monterey fresno tulare ventura types of pesticides more likely than whites 1/4-miles from schools Source: "Agricultural Pesticide Use Near Public Schools in California." See the full report and FAQs here: www.ehib.org/page.jsp?page_key=1040 25 imperial kern kings madera merced sacramento san joaquin san luis obispo santa barbara stanislaus yolo hispanics 37 V O L U M E 1 9 I S S U E 8 s t a t e r e p o r t :