The State - News from May 17, 1987
A coalition of consumer and environmental groups charged in a lawsuit that toxic pesticides are being used without adequate safety testing because Gov. George Deukmejian refuses to enforce a 1984 law aimed at curbing birth defects. The plaintiffs, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and California Rural Legal Assistance, said in the suit filed in San Francisco Superior Court that the state has failed to do 80% of the health tests required on the 200 principal pesticides now being used in California. Those tests are required by the Birth Defect Prevention Act, which says that if a manufacturer refuses to test its own product, the state must do the testing and bill the manufacturer for it.
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