Special Report: Investigating Pesticides

Residents in the Desert Southwest are familiar with the agriculture industry. Just in Yuma County alone the agriculture industry brings in three billion dollars a year.

Residents see products being grown throughout the valley. However, they rarely see are where pesticides and chemicals end up after crops are sprayed down.

Pesticides today are a lot different then they were 50-years ago. Experts say that is due in part to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) making sure consumers are safe. In this report 13 On Your Side investigates if residents are safe from pesticides that require workers to be fully suited just to spray.

We first take a look at a study back in 1999 that was sponsored by the E.P.A. and carried out by the University of Arizona. The study was done over a five-year period of time and looked into how children were being exposed to pesticides in Yuma County.

That research wasn’t cheap, costing $596,039. President of Regional Border Health Amanda Aguirre was one of the investigators on the study. We asked her about the findings.

“What we did find is some families were using some insecticides around the homes and their trailer,” said Aguirre. She said that common household chemicals were getting into the children’s systems, not from farmers pesticides.

She says children were more at risk to exposure if their family worked in the fields.

“You’re going to go and greet your families and hug your kids. Take all your clothes that you have when working in a field, that you’ve been exposed to. The insecticides and the herbicides. Even if applied before. Still, take your clothes off before you do that,” said Aguirre.

She says education is key when it comes to exposure to harmful chemicals.

“When they are spraying I’m not going to go underneath the plane that is spraying. You keep away and keep your doors and windows closed,” said Aguirre.

Residents are also advised to stay off agriculture fields , especially since it could have just been sprayed down. We reach out to John Palumbo, Extension Specialist for the University of Arizona, to see what’s being used throughout the county.

“The industry has responded by developing these very safe, what I call, green products,” says Palumbo.

He says some of those products you can even find at your local grocery store.

Gary Ursrey, head grower at Green Heart Farms, says they make sure to apply chemicals per the label’s instructions.

“We understand how much chemical we need to apply per house per acre and then we apply it in the legal manner,” says Ursrey.

The Department of Agriculture is in charge of making sure farmers are doing it legally.

“If the grower does not apply that product the way it’s designed on that label, he can go to jail that’s a federal offense because it’s a federal label,” says Palumbo.

As it stands now any farm in Yuma County that has a chemical spill needs to report it immediately to the Agriculture Department. That way the spill is effectively cleaned up and doesn’t put the community at risk

13 On Your Side contacted the Department of Agriculture and found that the last chemical spill that happened in Yuma was more than five years ago.

“The products were using today are extremely safe there not persistent in the environment you spray them today they are gone tomorrow,” says Palumbo.

He says the chemical companies are still continuing to work to make their chemicals safer.

Either way, Aguirre who lives near a field, says she’s not concerned.

“The front of my house is a field and yeah I feel comfortable with that,” says Aguirre.

Experts say education is key. Residents should never enter an agriculture field without the farmer’s permission. Farm workers should always take off their clothes when they get home and wash it separately. Also if you live by an agriculture field, close your windows and doors when they are spraying.

If you need to report an oil or chemical spill, you can contact the EPA emergency number at 800-424-8802.