California Pesticide Regulators Say New Rules Protect Communities as Applications of a Dangerous Fumigant Rise

California Pesticide Regulators Say New Rules Protect Communities as Applications of a Dangerous Fumigant Rise

Regulators insist they’re committed to protecting health and the environment, yet continue to allow growers to use a deadly chemical banned in 40 countries.By Liza GrossCalifornia regulators passed a rule in January 2024 that they said would protect communities from one of the state’s most popular, and dangerous, pesticides.

California Permits Pesticides the EU Has Banned

Photo: Tim Mossholder via Unsplash Guest contributor Julie Binot is an LL.M. graduate (’26) from UC Berkeley. Controversies in France over the reintroduction of acetamiprid, a pesticide, led me to look at California’s own protections. In France, the push to reinstate the neonicotinoid insecticide, banned since 2018 over risks to bees and human health, was ultimately blocked by the Constitutional Council after a petition gathered over two million…