Lax oversight, few inspections leave child farmworkers exposed to toxic pesticides

"Yet California's system of protecting farmworkers from pesticide dangers is anything but a tight safety net. Through interviews, public records and data analyses, an investigation by Capital & Main has found that: Enforcement of pesticide safety rules is splintered among dozens of county agriculture commissioners, resulting in piecemeal citations. Companies that operate in multiple counties were not fined for hundreds of violations - many of them pertaining to worker safety."

"County inspections to enforce pesticide safety are minimal in the state's farm belt. In 2023, there was one inspection for every 146 times that pesticides were applied in eight of California's top 11 producing counties, according to data provided by those counties. In interviews, more than two dozen underage farmworkers and parents described feeling sick and dizzy or suffering from skin irritations after being exposed to pesticides."

"Hundreds of thousands of times each year in California, farmers and their contractors spray pesticides on fields and orchards in the state's agricultural heartlands. Farmworkers young and old can be exposed to dangerous concentrations of toxic chemicals if they are not properly trained, left uninformed about when they can safely enter sprayed fields or exposed to pesticide applications - because of factors such as wind drift or operator error."

Pesticides are applied hundreds of thousands of times annually across California's agricultural regions, creating frequent exposure risks for farmworkers. Enforcement is fragmented among dozens of county agriculture commissioners, producing piecemeal citations and allowing multi-county operators to avoid fines for many violations, including worker-safety breaches. Inspection frequency is low in major producing counties, with one inspection per 146 applications in eight of the top 11 counties in 2023. Dozens of underage workers and parents reported symptoms after exposure, and illnesses related to pesticides are likely undercounted due to fear of employer retaliation. County regulators note reduced toxic pesticide use and claim improved enforcement.

Read at Los Angeles Times