Seven AGs Filed Comments Opposing Weakening of Pesticide Application Exposure Protections

JANUARY 30, 2020

New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a coalition of seven attorneys general in filing comments with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that raised concerns with a proposed rule that would weaken protections against human exposure to harmful pesticides when they are being applied on farm fields. The agency’s proposal would roll back standards that were updated and strengthened in 2015 “to prevent unreasonable adverse effects from exposure to pesticides among agricultural workers and pesticide handlers, vulnerable groups (such as minority or low-income populations, child farmworkers, and farmworker families), and other persons who may be on or near agricultural establishments.” In their comments, the AGs called the EPA’s revisions to its “Application Exclusion Zone” (AEZ) requirements an “unjustified and unsupported departure from the agency’s prior position,” and pushed back on the EPA’s contention that it is “next to impossible for a State trying to ensure compliance” to meet the existing AEZ requirements. The coalition cited California’s experience, in which the state “has not only been able to enforce the regulations, but has also continued to see its agricultural cash receipts grow.”