High Local Toxic Risk Cited

Ventura County residents risk more exposure to highly toxic airborne pesticides than those in all but two other California counties, an environmental watchdog group reported Wednesday.

Ventura County ranked behind only suburban Orange and agricultural Fresno counties in a statewide survey of the number of residents living near areas where at least 1,000 pounds of air contaminant pesticides are applied each year.

The new report found that in 1995 more than 40% of Ventura County residents--or nearly 300,000 people--lived within half a mile of heavy pesticide use. Most of them are residents of the farming valleys of the western county, which include the cities of Oxnard, Ventura and Camarillo.

Statewide, nearly 4 million Californians live near areas where pesticides are heavily used, raising concerns over human exposure to potentially dangerous airborne chemicals, according to a report from the California Public Interest Research Group.

The report was immediately criticized by state pesticide regulators and a major agricultural group, which called it alarmist, incomplete and unscientific.

The study did not measure specific health problems, but stated that “given both the high mobility of these chemicals in the air and the numbers of people living near pesticide applications, widespread exposures and resulting impacts on public health may be inevitable.”

In a state where housing tracts are springing up alongside bean fields and strawberry farms, regulators need to act more forcefully to ensure that airborne pesticides do not threaten public health, the study’s authors stated.

The study faulted the state Department of Pesticide Regulation for what it called woefully inadequate enforcement of a law dating to the early 1980s. That law is intended to protect people from pesticides in the air.

“We know that a lot of these chemicals are being used--millions of pounds each year--and millions of people are living nearby,” said Jonathan Kaplan, toxics program coordinator for CalPIRG.

The report called for more stringent use of existing laws, expanded air monitoring, phaseouts of the riskiest pesticides and buffer zones between homes and farmland.

State pesticide regulators slammed the CalPIRG report.

“CalPIRG’s latest pronouncement is not a scientific study by any standard, and CalPIRG’s statements about pesticides are clearly meant to frighten, rather than enlighten,” James W. Wells, state pesticide regulation chief, said in a written statement.

The new report is the latest in a series of studies released by environmental groups since 1996 that document heavy use of potentially dangerous pesticides near homes and schools in Ventura County, especially in Oxnard and El Rio.

“It’s a much bigger problem here than in many other places,” said Deborah Bechtel, director of a pesticide monitoring group in Camarillo. “We’ve heard stories of an increase in asthma in children and increases in behavioral problems by children who live near fields or go to schools near fields.

“Many of these fields where toxic chemicals are being sprayed are immediately adjacent to schools and homes,” she said. “And no one is testing in Ventura County for these airborne pesticides. That’s stupid and very dangerous.”

But farm officials derided the report.

“There is no problem,” said Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “They haven’t done anything to substantiate their assertion. . . . They’ve taken the same data they’ve used before and spun it differently.”

Officials at the Ventura County agricultural commissioner’s office have also maintained that pesticide use is not a problem because the toxic pesticides can be applied only under strict regulations.

“We’ve done this for a long time,” Agricultural Commissioner W. Earl McPhail said. “The growers themselves are very concerned about the toxicity of pesticides. So they try to use the least toxic pesticides they can get away with.”

Although agriculture remains this county’s No. 1 industry--a $1.2-billion enterprise that employs 20,000 workers--farmers are keenly aware they must balance their interests with those of urban dwellers, McPhail said.

McPhail said there has been little evidence over the years that local residents have been exposed to dangerous levels of pesticides.

Yet, environmental groups have warned repeatedly of the potential health hazards of highly toxic pesticides, and homeowners and schoolteachers have sometimes complained about flu-like sickness after pesticide spraying.

A Washington, D.C.-based group reported earlier this year that students at two Ventura County schools were potentially more exposed to dangerous levels of pesticide than any other students in California. In fact, eight Oxnard-area schools were among the top 25 in the state for potential exposure.

Another study last year reported that pesticide use on Ventura County crops had increased 13% from 1991 to 1995, despite the loss of hundreds of acres of farmland to development each year. The county ranked fifth in the state for intensity of pesticide use per acre because three of its principal crops--strawberries, cabbage and lemons--require far more treatment than most crops.

And application of the extremely toxic nerve gas methyl bromide along with the tear gas chloropicrin on strawberry fields prompted a local controversy in 1996, when numerous Ventura residents complained of illnesses.

A state study in six coastal counties from Humboldt to Ventura has also found that western Ventura County rivaled Lompoc Valley in Santa Barbara County for the number of respiratory problems reported to authorities.