As Back to School season rolls out across California, and families begin to sign up for afterschool programs, volunteer opportunities, and sports activities, those who live in agricultural communities may consider adding one other sign-up to their list: SprayDays, a pesticide notification system by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR).
SprayDays allows people to sign up to receive a text and/or email notification when a restricted pesticide is going to be applied at a specific location.
Fumigants are also part of the SprayDays notification system. Applied to soil, these pesticides become a gas that controls soil-borne pests and diseases, but they can also drift from application sites.
Considered a victory for advocates and agricultural communities across California when it was launched last year, the tool sheds light on when and where fumigants and other pesticides that are subject to some of the state’s strictest regulations are being applied.
In its first year of operation, SprayDays received 4,327 text and email notification sign-ups, 89,679 website views and 96,000 notifications sent to users statewide, according to the California DPR.
The 10 California counties that had the greatest number of SprayDay sign-ups were: Monterey, Ventura, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, Santa Clara, Tulare, Fresno, Merced, Madera, and San Joaquin.
Users can sign up to receive texts for a particular address, including schools, work sites
Visitors to the SprayDays website can search for scheduled applications anonymously using a map or enter any address to view applications planned within a one-square-mile area.
Users can also choose to receive text and/or email notifications about scheduled pesticide applications near a specified address, such as a school or work site.
Notifications are sent out 48 hours before the intended use of soil fumigants and 24 hours before the intended use of other restricted material pesticides used on farms.
California law requires farms notify schools
By law, California growers with fields within a 1/4 mile of a school or licensed child-day care facility must notify the principal or administrator by April 30, of all pesticides, including organic materials that are exempt from pesticide registration, they expect to use for the following July-June school year.
State regulations also restrict certain types of pesticide applications made within a 1/4 mile of a school or licensed child-care facility during school hours: Monday to Friday, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. These include applications by aircraft, sprinklers and fumigants.
When these regulations were enacted in 2018, approximately 2,500 California growers as well as 4,100 public K-12 schools and licensed child day-care facilities were expected to be impacted.
Prior to 2018, no consistent rules regarding pesticide application had existed in the state, with California counties only adopting local rules.
This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Track pesticide use near your school with SprayDays
Reporting by Roseann Cattani, USA TODAY NETWORK / Salinas Californian
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Roseann Cattani, USA TODAY NETWORK | USA TODAY Network
