August 22, 2023
In this Issue:
Action Alert: Call your Senators to support an EJ Advisory Committee at DPR
DPR ignores science, persists in weak regulation for cancer-causing fumigant 1,3-D
Save the Date! People's Tribunal on Pesticide Use and Civil Rights Sept. 12
Action Alert: We need YOU to call Senators in August to support AB 652 to establish an Environmental Justice Advisory Committee at the Department for Pesticide Regulation (DPR)
We need YOUR support to call Senators on the Appropriations Committee to request they vote YES on AB 652. See below for phone numbers and call script.

State legislators are back from summer recess, which means hearings on key legislation will be heard soon. AB 652 will be considered by the Senate appropriations committee on August 28th.

In addition to calling these committee members, you can also call your own State Senator(s) to let them know you want them to support the passage of AB 652.

To learn more about AB 652 visit our FAQ page here.
Use the sample script below when making calls and add your unique perspective and concerns to the message!
"Hi. I’m calling Senator_______ to request she/he vote YES on AB 652 to establish an Environmental Justice Advisory Committee within the Department of Pesticide Regulation.

Farmworker and rural farm-working communities, which are predominantly Latina/o, Indigenous and immigrant, are facing disproportionate exposures to toxic pesticides and are experiencing high rates of cancer, respiratory health problems, reproductive harms, birth defects and developmental delays in children.

We need our state government to take action to establish a public facing mechanism for community stakeholders to provide recommendations on how DPR can improve its operations to fulfill its obligations in protecting public health, environmental health and civil rights.

Farmworkers in California sustain the state, the nation, and the world's food system. Along with California's Tribal leaders, environmental science, agro-ecological science and public health experts, they should be at the decision- making table on pesticide regulation. I urge you to VOTE YES on AB 652. Thank you for your time."
Why won't our state pesticide regulators keep us safe from 1,3-D [Telone]? Why won't they follow the science?
This question was posed by our Safe Ag Safe Schools Monterey Bay Organizer, Yanely Martinez, in an op-ed published in the Lookout Santa Cruz earlier this month: Why won’t our state pesticide regulators keep us safe from Telone? Why won’t they follow the science?

We are now in year 7 of our legal battle with DPR and Dow over the regulation of the cancer-causing fumigant 1,3-D (Telone). Back in a March ruling, the court rejected DPR's draft regulation for 1,3-D because it had excluded farmworkers from its protections. If a pesticide regulation affects worker safety, then it is the joint responsibility of DPR and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to work together so that the regulation is based upon the recommendations of OEHHA. DPR tried to avoid including farmworkers so it wouldn't have to work with OEHHA in developing a regulation. OEHHA has recommended a lifetime cancer risk level (No Significant Risk Level) that is 14 x more protective than DPR's lifetime cancer risk level.

Since the court order in March, DPR has chosen to create two separate regulations for 1,3-D: one for occupational bystanders (farmworkers and other workers) and one for non-occupational bystanders (residents). The residential bystander regulation will be finalized in November 2023 and the occupational bystander regulation has a court-ordered deadline for a first draft of March 2024.

So far, DPR has incorporated two rounds of modifications to a draft proposal for the residential bystander regulation but has not changed the lifetime cancer risk level to reflect OEHHA's standard of 0.04 parts per billion. After each modification has been published, we've weighed in with public comment, which you can read here and here.

Stay tuned! We will keep you posted on upcoming advocacy opportunities to hold DPR accountable for regulating 1,3-D at OEHHA's recommended level.
Mark your calendars and join us for a People's Tribunal on Pesticide Use and Civil Rights on September 12th!
Californians for Pesticide Reform and UC Irvine are hosting a People's Tribunal at the Lindsay Wellness Center in Tulare County on September 12, 2023. The event will provide a forum for experts and community members to deliberate over civil rights in the context of pesticide use and exposure. People's tribunals take the form of legal proceedings run by public figures, legal practitioners, and community leaders. Designed to demand accountability, their claim to authority begins with the argument that members of the community are competent to invoke and apply the law on their own when governments are unwilling to do so.

Save the date! We will be sending out details for attending, tuning in virtually, and spreading the word among communities across the state.