“The court rejected the agency’s blank check to spray people’s yards, exposing children and pets to a range of pesticides that can cause serious long-term problems, including cancer, asthma, and IQ loss,” said Debbie Friedman, founder of MOMS Advocating Sustainability, one of the groups that sued over the program. The groups also alleged that some of the chemicals threaten public water, endangered species and bees that pollinate crops.
…it will have to suspend spraying pesticides on vegetation in parks, school properties and even homeowners’ backyards…the environmental groups that sued the California Department of Food and Agriculture documented a long-standing pattern of spraying under emergency provisions that exempted the agency from full disclosure of health risks.
