As part of National Farmworker Awareness Week, Farmworker Justice recognizes the dangers of pesticides to the health and safety of farmworkers. One of the many problems pesticide use in agriculture poses is pesticide drift. Pesticide drift doesn’t have any real and defined boundaries.
Children are often subjected to pesticide exposure, whether or not they are intentionally near agricultural fields. Houses and schools in rural, agricultural communities frequently border fields exposing families and children to pesticide drift as they engage in their daily routines. The 1993 National Academy of Science study on children’s risks from pesticides found that agricultural pesticide drift can contribute to kids’ overall pesticide exposure and that airborne pesticide residues are generally higher in areas close to agricultural lands. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has also documented harmful exposures to the public from pesticide drift. Many pesticide residues can remain in the water and soil for years, effectively contaminating entire food supply chains.
Farmworker Justice, in addition to a number of other advocates, has filed a petition asking the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remedy ongoing violations of its legal obligations to protect children from unsafe aggregate exposures to pesticides. This petition implores the EPA to protect children from exposure to toxic pesticides that drift from agricultural fields and contaminate areas where children congregate such as schools, homes, parks, and daycare centers.
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