Agricultural Viability, Public Health Shape a Debate

In January the Ventura County Board of Supervisors postponed the reappointment of our county’s agricultural commissioner for six months. As noted in The Times’ editorial (“Leadership Role Critical,” June 27) that probationary period will end Tuesday. Supervisors and The Times have received letters supporting and opposing reappointment of W. Earl McPhail.

Supporters have tended to be from established agricultural organizations. A repeated concern they voice is that supervisors not give in to political pressure from special-interest groups and the environmental community.

As a board member of Community and Children’s Advocates Against Pesticide Poisoning (CCAAPP), I’d like to bring a face to at least a portion of the opposition to Mr. McPhail’s reappointment. Our organization is a grass-roots, all-volunteer one that exists to educate the public about the dangers of the overuse of pesticides. We are parents and grandparents, teachers and former farm workers, who have seen firsthand what health problems can result from pesticide exposure.

We have researched the issue using documents obtained from the pesticide overseers--the county agricultural commissioner’s office and the state Department of Pesticide Regulation--to get past the rhetoric and obtain the facts.

We speak for those who go through life trusting that their health and safety are foremost in the minds of their public officials:

* The mother and her year-old daughter who were accidentally sprayed with chlorpyrifos while driving along an Oxnard Street. Told by the agricultural commissioner’s office that it was “just water,” she learned only after her husband had her car tested that she had missed the opportunity to be treated for the poisoning symptoms she exhibited. Now she, her daughter and the child to whom she gave birth three months after the incident are on a much longer probation than Mr. McPhail’s, waiting to see what long-term health problems they may suffer.

* The veteran teacher who was transferred from Rio Mesa High School after needing a medical leave of absence, and who is still suffering serious, long-term health consequences from what she and her doctors believe to have been repeated overexposure to pesticides after only six years on the Rio Mesa campus.

* The students at Mound Elementary and Balboa Middle schools who were exposed to Agri-mek sprayed high into citrus trees across the street as they walked home from school.

All of these incidents, and many more, were reported to the office of the agricultural commissioner by concerned citizens. In those investigated--including the last mentioned, which occurred only two months ago--no fines were levied, no buffer zones were increased and no steps were taken to notify students or parents to prevent accidental exposure from recurring.

Recently the supervisors approved $127,500 in additional funds to the agricultural commissioner’s office, and are considering funding four more positions for pesticide enforcement. But without a major change in policy, CCAAPP believes Mr. McPhail’s office will continue to neglect the protection of public health, which is as much a part of his mandate as is the promotion of agriculture.

It is not our farmers and growers whom CCAAPP holds ultimately responsible for the dangers we face from the millions of pounds of pesticides used in Ventura County each year. We know that most of the agricultural community does its best to follow application instructions and regulations. But the chemical companies, like their counterparts with interests in tobacco, tirelessly promote their products while refusing to acknowledge the long-term consequences of their use. They put us all--homeowners, growers and farm workers alike--at risk.

Many ask why, if pesticides are unsafe, more of us are not ill? The answer is we are, especially our children. One of every 600 youngsters born today can expect to be found to have cancer by age 10. The application instructions recommended by the pesticide producers and the Department of Pesticide Regulation are based on what is considered a safe exposure level for healthy young adult males. If these chemicals can be safely used:

* Why has the rate of testicular cancer in 19- to 29-year-old men increased 68% over the past 20 years?

* Why did the death rate from asthma increase 78% from 1980 to 1993?

* Why has the diagnosis of childhood cancer increased steadily each year for the past 20?

To his credit, Mr. McPhail is among the first to say that children do not belong near agricultural activities involving pesticides.

“These are toxic chemicals,” he has said. “They are designed to kill, and that’s what they do.”

But given that reality, Mr. McPhail’s office routinely issues permits for the use of the most toxic chemicals near schools, requiring no more than the minimum precautions and buffer zones, and failing to require notification of parents, students and faculty. His record speaks for itself. His tenure has been characterized by lax enforcement, the levy of infrequent, negligible fines and denial of the validity of parental concerns about the dangers of exposure. He has been cautioned and has improved before, only to backslide when the pressure was released. What assurance can supervisors give us that this pattern will change?

There are several things parents and community members can do to minimize exposure of our children to toxic chemicals:

* Educate yourself about the long-term health risks of chronic low-level exposure to toxic chemicals for infants and children.

* Ask your school administrators to implement a nontoxic pest-management policy.

* Request on your children’s emergency medical information card that you be notified before and after any pesticide use on or adjacent to school grounds, including nearby fields.

* Support local growers who use least-toxic and nontoxic methods to produce food, and buy organic whenever you can.

* Close your windows and vents when driving near fields or orchards that are being sprayed or irrigated. Most pesticides are distributed in water.

* Finally, talk with your neighbors and friends in the farming community about the corporate sources that assure them that pesticides can be used safely. Remember, for years the tobacco industry asserted that there was no evidence of danger to health from cigarette smoke.

A nation that can put a man on the moon surely can figure out a nontoxic way to grow food. But until we do find alternative techniques and products, our only protections against the current chemical flood are knowledge of the long-term risks and strict enforcement of the regulations overseen by the agricultural commissioner’s office.

We implore Supervisors John Flynn, Susan Lacey, Kathy Long, Judy Mikels and Frank Schillo to be certain that the agricultural commissioner they appoint will give top priority to public health. We understand that agriculture is the economic engine on which Ventura County runs, but we believe it is long past time that all of us learn what health risks our communities endure for the bounty that brings billions of dollars into the coffers of the state and millions into the cash boxes of pesticide producers each year.

The price is too high if we must be poisoned in our homes, schools and fields to obtain it. There is a better way, just waiting for us to find it.