Community members wait to speak at the DPR hearing in Salinas

DPR just wrapped up three hearings on the proposed new regulations to protect schoolchildren from exposure to hazardous agricultural pesticides – and we were ready! Thanks to our terrific organizing bases and the tremendous response from community members, we turned out more than 500 people to the hearings in Oxnard and Tulare in November, and Salinas in December. More than 100 community members made public comments, which are now part of the official record.

In Tulare, organizer Angel Garcia and the Tulare County – Coalition Advocating for Pesticide Safety (TC-CAPS) held a march and rally before the hearing. In Salinas, more than 60 people waited all night for the chance to be heard.

At each hearing, we were united in our message to DPR:

Your draft regs don’t go far enough to protect children’s health, remedy the well-documented racial disparity in impact, or prevent chronic exposure that’s linked to a host of serious illnesses from cancer to asthma.

We need one-mile, full-time buffer zones for schools and childcare centers, free of the most hazardous agricultural chemicals.

The science supports it.
Communities and educators want it.
Our children deserve it.
Fill our kids with knowledge, not chemicals!

 

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