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

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Leer en español 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.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:Asked about these findings, state officials said the data does not reflect some of the broader actions they have taken to protect farmworkers.

County regulators contend that their enforcement has improved safety conditions for laborers and noted that use of toxic pesticides has decreased significantly over the last decade.Yet groups that have researched pesticide enforcement say the state of California is not using its powers to fine repeat offenders for safety violations — and hold them accountable.About This StoryThis report was produced in partnership with Capital & Main, a California-based nonprofit investigative news publication and the McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

It was supported by the California Health Care Foundation and the Fund for Investigative Journalism.“It’s especially troubling because it means workers aren’t being protected,” said Anne Katten, director of the Pesticide and Work Health and Safety Project for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.Exposure to pesticides and laboring in extreme heat are problematic for all farmworkers, but the long-term effects on the neurol...