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A farmworker harvests strawberries in a field near Oxnard, California.Mario Tama\/Getty\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tGet your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by\u00a0Inside Climate News<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0Climate Desk<\/a>\u00a0collaboration.<\/p>\n California Assemblymember Nick Schultz is leading an effort to phase out the use of pesticides containing toxic \u201cforever chemicals\u201d to safeguard the nation\u2019s produce.\u00a0<\/p>\n Schultz (D-Burbank), introduced\u00a0AB 1603<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year to ban the use, sale, and manufacture of PFAS pesticides in California starting in 2035. The state is the nation\u2019s top agricultural producer, its fruits, nuts ,and vegetables landing on plates across the US.<\/p>\n California has passed so many laws to get these highly persistent, harmful synthetic chemicals out of homes and the environment, Schultz said at a briefing Wednesday, he was shocked to learn that pesticides with intentionally added PFAS are regularly sprayed on the state\u2019s crops. \u201cI was even more startled to find out that these PFAS pesticides are present on the fruit and vegetables that we purchase at the grocery store, on the fruits and vegetables that we feed our families,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n More than 2.5 million pounds of pesticides containing PFAS were sprayed on California crops between 2018 and 2023, according to\u00a0an analysis<\/a>\u00a0of state pesticide use data by the Environmental Working Group, which is co-sponsoring Schultz\u2019s bill with other\u00a0public interest<\/a>\u00a0and health groups.<\/p>\n \u201cResidues that are found on produce grown in California will spread across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n EWG also detected residues of at least one PFAS pesticide on\u00a0nearly 40 percent<\/a>\u00a0of conventional produce grown in the Golden State. The group always advises consumers to wash their produce. But it\u2019s unclear whether rinsing fruits and vegetables laced with chemicals designed to resist water would have any effect.<\/p>\n The Environmental Protection Agency\u00a0has said<\/a>\u00a0that the pesticides pose no risks when used as directed.<\/p>\n More than half a million pounds of PFAS pesticides were applied in Monterey County, where for decades University of California, Berkeley, researchers have studied how pesticides affect farmworker communities. The\u00a0pioneering research<\/a>\u00a0in the Salinas Valley has linked pesticide exposure to a variety of health problems in children.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cStudies have shown that Salinas children are born with higher levels of pesticides in their urine and experience early cognitive difficulties and later develop serious behavioral and mental health problems in adolescence and adulthood,\u201d said Andrew Sandoval, a Salinas city council member. \u201cNow we\u2019re learning that some of these pesticides are not only linked to serious health concerns, but also forever chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n And these highly persistent toxic chemicals were applied more than 1,000 times between 2018 and 2023 in Monterey County, he said, more than in nearly any\u00a0other California county<\/a>.<\/p>\n PFAS have nearly indestructible chemical bonds that allow them to resist water, grease, and heat, making them valuable ingredients in hundreds of consumer products, including food packaging, cookware, dental floss, cosmetics and outdoor gear. But the same properties that make these industrial chemicals commercially attractive have allowed them to build up in the environment and the tissues of wildlife and people around the globe.<\/p>\n Thanks to the chemicals\u2019 widespread commercial appeal, nearly every American has\u00a0PFAS in their blood<\/a>, where it stays for years and leads to\u00a0serious health problems<\/a>\u2014impaired vaccine response, higher cholesterol levels, increased risk of kidney and testicular cancer, and lower birth weight, among other ills.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to bring California into alignment with the European Union,\u201d which has banned some of the pesticides in question. <\/p>\n The EPA has approved 70 active-ingredient PFAS pesticides, and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation has allowed 53 of these pesticides to be used in the state, Schultz\u2019s bill notes. For the 23 California-approved PFAS pesticides that are prohibited in the European Union, the ban would begin five years earlier, in 2030.<\/p>\n The European Union has outlawed two of the most commonly applied pesticides, bifenthrin and trifluralin, due to health and environmental concerns, said EWG science analyst Varun Subramaniam.<\/p>\n Yet California farmers sprayed nearly 4 million pounds of the toxic chemicals on fruits and vegetables over six years.<\/p>\n The most frequently detected pesticide on produce was fludioxonil, a PFAS fungicide linked to hormone disruption and\u00a0reproductive problems<\/a>, Subramaniam said. The toxic compound tainted 90 percent of tested nectarine, plum, and peach samples grown in California.<\/p>\n PFAS pesticides have largely been used in California with no limitations, and we\u2019re only just beginning to understand their long-lasting effects, Subramaniam said. \u201cAs the breadbasket of the United States,\u201d he added, \u201cresidues that are found on produce grown in California will spread across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n