The California Environmental Protection Agency announced on Oct. 9 that virtually all use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos in California will end next year following an agreement between the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) and pesticide manufacturers to withdraw their products.
“For years, environmental justice advocates have fought to get the harmful pesticide chlorpyrifos out of our communities,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “Thanks to their tenacity and the work of countless others, this will now occur faster than originally envisioned. This is a big win for children, workers, and public health in California.”
The agreement with Dow AgroSciences and other companies means that use of chlorpyrifos will end sooner than anticipated in California had the companies pursued administrative hearings and potential appeals processes, which could have taken up to two years. To ensure consistency for growers and for enforcement purposes, DPR said it is applying the terms and deadlines to seven other companies that are not part of the settlement agreement but are subject to DPR’s cancellation orders.
Under terms of the settlement, the companies agreed that all sales of chlorpyrifos products to growers in California will end on Feb. 6, 2020, and growers will no longer be allowed to possess or use chlorpyrifos products in California after Dec. 31, 2020. Until then, all uses must comply with existing restrictions, including a ban on aerial spraying, quarter-mile buffer zones, and limiting use to crop-pest combinations that lack alternatives. DPR said it will aggressively enforce these restrictions.
A few products that apply chlorpyrifos in granular form, representing less than one percent of agricultural use of chlorpyrifos in California, will be allowed to remain on the market. These products are not associated with detrimental health effects, but DPR said it will continue to monitor for any exposures associated with these products.
“The swift end to the sale of chlorpyrifos protects vulnerable communities by taking a harmful pesticide off the market,” said California Secretary for Environmental Protection Jared Blumenfeld. “This agreement avoids a protracted legal process while providing a clear timeline for California farmers as we look toward developing alternative pest management practices.”
Chlorpyrifos is used to control pests on a variety of crops, including alfalfa, almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes, and walnuts. It has declined in use over the past decade as California growers have shifted to safer alternatives, with DPR reporting that usage fell from two million pounds in 2005 to just over 900,000 pounds in 2017.
Earlier this year, DPR announced it was acting to ban use of chlorpyrifos by canceling the pesticide’s product registrations. DPR said the decision followed mounting evidence that chlorpyrifos is associated with serious health effects in children and other sensitive populations at lower levels of exposure than previously understood, including impaired brain and neurological development.
DPR and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) have also established a working group to identify, evaluate, and recommend safer alternatives to chlorpyrifos. It will hold its first meeting this month and will hold three public workshops beginning in January. More than $5 million in grant funding has been appropriated for the project.