First-ever DPR Environmental Justice Advisory Committee

On December 10, 2025, the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) held the inaugural meeting of its Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (EJAC). The committee—made up entirely of members from communities disproportionately impacted by pesticide use—carefully reviewed the Charter and proposed key changes to strengthen its role. Among their recommendations was the need to meet more than twice a year to ensure the committee can meaningfully influence DPR’s policies and actions. We remain hopeful that DPR will take these recommendations seriously. 

The next meeting is yet to be scheduled.

We're suing DPR (again!) for failing to protect communities from toxic fumigant 1,3-D

In its recently adopted regulations, the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) has once again put public health at risk by approving regulations that ignore the science around 1,3-D—a known carcinogen produced by Dow AgroSciences. CPR and Pesticide Action and Agroecology Network (PAN) have joined community residents Ana Barrera and Rocio Ortiz in suing DPR. The lawsuit challenges DPR’s creation of two conflicting regulations which allow different exposure levels for the same communities and fail to adequately protect public health.

As plaintiff Rocio Ortiz, a member of Future Leaders of Change (FLOC), explains: “DPR had years to get this right. Instead, they created confusing, contradictory rules that put our communities at risk. We shouldn’t have to keep suing the state just to be protected from cancer-causing chemicals.”

No More Excuses! UCLA Report shows DPR how to consider the Cumulative Impacts of Pesticide Mixtures

Californians face exposure to a toxic mix of thousands of pesticides that interact in complex ways. State law requires the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) and County Agricultural Commissioners (CACs) to evaluate these cumulative impacts during pesticide registration and restricted materials permitting, respectively, yet they have consistently failed to do so. A new report, Building Capacity for Robust Pesticide Regulation: Part I – Cumulative Impacts by UCLA professors Timothy Malloy and Patrick Allard, outlines a practical pathway to improve its decision making.

As San Joaquin Valley Environmental Justice Coordinator Cristina Gutierrez expressed: “Real life exposure is cumulative—and policy should be too.”