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ACTION ALERT
Urge DPR to stop the backpedaling on regulations to reduce pesticide smog!
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SUMMARY
On November 28th the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) released new draft regulations to address smog-forming pesticides. The draft regulations seriously backpedal on DPR's promise to reduce smog-forming pesticides in the five air basins across the state-especially in the San Joaquin Valley.
Voice your opposition in writing by Jan 15th and in person at the public hearings January 12th in Bakersfield and January 14th in Sacramento.
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ACTION
Take Action Now! Demand DPR comply fully with the Clean Air Act by reducing the use of smog-forming pesticides.
1) Send in your comments to DPR: DPR is accepting comments on their draft regulations until Thursday January 15th. Feel free to cut and paste or add your own words to the sample letter below.
Send comments to:
Fax: (916) 324-1452
2) Attend a hearing: DPR is holding two public hearings to get feedback on their draft regulations. Come and demand strong regulations!
Monday, January 12, 2009 - Bakersfield, 5 p.m.,
Kern County Agricultural Pavilion, 3300 East Belle Terrace
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 -Sacramento, 1 p.m.,
Sierra Hearing Room, California Environmental Protection Agency
headquarters, 1001 I St.
Thank you!
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BACKGROUND
Pesticides are one of the largest contributors to smog in the San Joaquin Valley and Ventura County, and a major contributor in the Southeast Desert, which includes the Coachella Valley. DPR should prioritize pesticide use reduction because pesticides are highly toxic, causing many mass farm worker and community poisonings, and volatile organic compounds (VOC) from pesticides contribute to smog and fine particulate matter formation. The only guaranteed way to reduce smog, particulate matter and toxic emissions from pesticides is to reduce pesticide use.
Ozone pollution-commonly called smog-is a summer time pollutant that damages lung tissue, exacerbates asthma, reduces lung capacity, increases respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions, and increases school and work absenteeism. Fine particulate matter is a wintertime pollutant that exacerbates asthma and causes death in people with heart or lung disease.
The failure to meet smog and fine particle standards costs Valley residents at least $5.7 billon each year in health costs, or $1,600 per person. Agriculture-just like everyone else-needs to do its fair share to clean up the air.
Regulations to reduce the VOC from pesticides are long overdue. In the mid 1990's, California regulators promised to adopt regulations that would reduce VOC from pesticides by 20% below 1990 levels in five air basins by 2005. But the regulations did not keep their promise, leaving Californians to breathe polluted air.
The proposed regulations maintain the status quo and create a fiction of pollution reduction by manipulating the numbers to make it look as if necessary reductions have already been achieved. They do not meet the 20% reduction in VOC emissions promised in a 1996 commitment that EPA approved. DPR wants to break its promise to Californians by proposing to cut back VOC from pesticides by only 12% in the San Joaquin Valley. This violates federal law in the EPA-approved State Implementation Plan, the collection of rules and regulations that are supposed to achieve clean air standards for all Californians.
We must voice strong opposition to this backpedaling and promise-breaking, and demand that DPR adopt strong regulations to protect people's health. Californians deserve to breathe clean air.
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SAMPLE LETTER
Linda Irokawa-Otani, Regulations Coordinator
Department of Pesticide Regulation
1001 I Street, P.O. Box 4015
Sacramento, California 95812-4015
RE: DPR 08-006 Field Fumigant Emission Limits.
Dear Linda Irokawa-Otani:
I am writing to urge DPR to come up with regulations to reduce the use of volatile organic compound (VOC) pollution from pesticides. Reducing use is the only guaranteed way of reducing VOC emissions from pesticides.
VOC from pesticides causes smog and fine particle (PM2.5) air pollution and poisons communities with carcinogens and reproductive toxins, yet pesticide polluters have been getting a free ride for over a decade, leaving communities breathing dirty air. Everyone needs to do their fair share to clean up our air. The Department of Pesticide Regulations needs to implement strong regulations in the San Joaquin Valley that are consistent with the rest of the state to reduce emissions from Volatile Organic Compound-emitting pesticides by at least 20% based on the 1990 year levels, before the next ozone season (May 2009). Backsliding to 12% violates the EPA approved State Implementation Plan, the Clean Air Act, and leaves Valley residents unprotected from smog-forming pesticides. If DPR breaks its commitment to the San Joaquin Valley, it could easily backslide on regulations elsewhere.
Californians deserve to breathe clean air now! The ongoing extensive use of pesticides that emit VOC is a major threat to the health of Californians. Air pollution from smog and PM2.5 damages lung tissue, exacerbates asthma, reduces lung capacity, increases respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions, causes premature death, and increases school and work absenteeism. The health costs for San Joaquin Valley residents from the failure to meet federal smog and PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards - to which VOCs contribute - is $5.7 billion each year, or $1,600 per person per year. Many poor Valley residents lack access to health care, which places an additional and unfair burden on those who can least afford to bear the burden of air pollution and its health consequences.
It is long past the time for DPR to take real steps in reducing the use of all fumigant and non-fumigant VOC-emitting pesticides in agriculture, so our families can breathe the clean air to which they are entitled and avoid the billions in health costs.
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