California DPR expands Pesticide Monitoring Network

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), in cooperation with the California Air Resources Board (CARB), is increasing the number of communities where air monitoring for pesticides will be conducted.

The expanded air-monitoring network will allow DPR to obtain more data from more locations and give a more comprehensive picture of pesticide concentrations in the air in various California agricultural communities.

The expanded network will be in effect starting this month and conclude by December 2018. The major changes include:

• Increasing the number of communities monitored from six to eight;
• Monitoring for 31 pesticides and five pesticide breakdown products at all sites. (Previously only three sites monitored for all 31 pesticides.);
• Two locations previously monitored will be removed from the network.

California is the only state that monitors air as part of its continuous reevaluation of pesticides to ensure the protection of workers, public health, and the environment.

The eight sites include three that are directly monitored by DPR: Chualar (Monterey County), Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County), and Watsonville area (Santa Cruz County). Another five sites will be monitored by the Air Resources Board in cooperation with DPR: Shafter (Kern County), El Rio/Oxnard (Ventura County), Cuyama (Santa Barbara County), Lindsay (Tulare County), and San Joaquin (Fresno County).

Samples will be collected one day per week at each location. The sites, which include six schools, were chosen based on several factors including pesticide use on surrounding farmland; demographics including the percentage of children and elderly living nearby; and the income of the local population.

DPR formed the Air Monitoring Network in 2011, the first of its kind in the nation. The pesticides were chosen for monitoring based on the amount of use and their potential health risks. They include all the major fumigants and many organophosphates.

Please note that DPR scientists also conduct seasonal and other short-term air monitoring for pesticides as part of DPR’s commitment to continuously evaluate the use of registered pesticides in California.