We need better pesticide drift detection tools

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A year ago, on June 13, 2024, there was a long-distance drift event from a fumigation using chloropicrin (tear gas) and 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-DCP) seriously impacting 33 known individuals in Oceano and Arroyo Grande with migraine headaches, nausea, flu-like symptoms, respiratory issues, and perhaps causing two pneumonias, according to data that I and others collected. Crows and owls no longer were seen in a resident’s trees. 

Further research uncovered another group of individuals in Grover Beach and Oceano who had experienced long-distance drift over many years. Pesticide applications continue year-round, occurring frequently on commercial strawberry and vegetable fields making point source difficult to determine without paying a fee to the county. 

Since June 13, 2024, to date nearly 100 incidents occurred ranging from a 1-year-old to seniors in their late 80s. For nearly a month up to April 20, eastern Oceano and western Halcyon residents reported no honeybee activity for about a month. During the end of this period, another 18 incidents of exposure were reported.

The main purpose for writing this is to alert Central Coast residents of this problem, especially those living within a mile of commercial agriculture who may be experiencing unexplained headaches, fatigue, flu-like symptoms, dizziness, skin eruptions, hives, earaches, occasional or constant low-grade cough, watery eyes, chest pressure, and more. Many individuals have had these symptoms with no idea of cause. 

In mid-March of this year, the state Department of Pesticide Regulations launched a long overdue app that will notify anyone within a mile radius of a restricted agriculture chemical. Here is the link: spraydays.cdpr.ca.gov.

The state at long last has been pressured to admit the applications of restricted agriculture chemicals do not remain within the 50-foot setbacks claimed as protective zones over the last several decades. Unfortunately, this app does not cover unrestricted pesticide applications, which are more numerous, just as dangerous. Notification for these chemical applications is voluntary; very few notify.

When calling in a complaint with symptoms from long-distance drift exposure to the county Department of Agriculture, their questions remain restricted to decades-old questions: “Did you smell or see anything?” “Did you get a blood test?” (Insurance doesn’t cover it, and it costs $150.) “Did you see your doctor?” One cannot see nor smell long-distance drift unless it’s epic. And everyone has a different response or responses. Many symptoms don’t appear until days after exposure. Some individuals become chemically sensitive. Others show no indication.

We are now in a new era. Officials and farmers used to deny long-distance drift as a problem. They can no longer deny it. Here in South County, parts of Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande, and Nipomo, and all of Oceano and Halcyon are being “washed” by long-distance drift, causing many symptoms. A 2005 informal survey counted 21 symptoms within a 1/4-mile radius of a commercial strawberry field. Many day care facilities, preschools, and schools are within the mile radius of a field or fields; the regulations allow applications near schools as close as half a mile.

First-hand reports show individuals thinking, at first, that their serious symptoms were biologically caused, not chemically. Symptoms almost sent one individual to the ER. How many have gone? Once they understand the relationship of an application with onset of a symptom or symptoms, they are relieved on one hand. Then they become upset that long-distance drift is permissible, and seemingly unstoppable in our political climate at the state level.

Karl Kempton
Oceano

This article appears in Jun 12-22, 2025.