California is moving to ban farmers from spraying pesticides into the air near schools and day-care centers under a newly proposed rule that will be among the nation’s toughest.
Crop-dusters flying over fields, air-blasters spraying orchards, and fumigants that risk blowing onto campuses will no longer be allowed within a quarter-mile of those facilities, state pesticide regulators said. Under the rule, farmers will be limited to spraying near schools at night and on weekends, when students are not on campus.
The rule will safeguard 3,500 schools and day cares, affect roughly 2,500 farms, and carry fines of up to $5,000, officials said. At least 34 people were sickened in five instances between 2005 and 2014 when pesticides drifted onto campuses.
