The Killer Among Us: Pesticide Use in California and Butte County

In Living Downstream, Sandra Steingraber reminisces about growing up in the ‘50s when pesticides were commonplace and DDT was sprayed from the back of service trucks rolling through our neighborhoods. In some neighborhoods, children would play a game, running behind the truck, competing to see who could stay in the chemical fog the longest before becoming dizzy. Those were the days of innocence when we knew who the public enemies were. They were the mosquito and cockroach, the gypsy moth and Dutch Elm disease. Even better, we knew how to fight them: with synthetic pesticides, the killer of killers.

Blissfully, we joined in the campaign to rid ourselves of nature’s pests. Television ads featured housewives in pith helmets ready for battle with spray guns in hand, aiming at giant cockroaches, standing on the kitchen counter. In other ads, they joined a chorus line of farm animals singing, "DDT is good for me!" But even as we went merrily along, celebrating a world free from nature’s rude intrusion, evidence of pesticides’ harmful effects grew. In 1951, it was already clear that DDT contaminated human breast milk and was passed on from mother to child. By the late 50’s, the scientific case against this deadly killer was solid: DDT was failing in every way. It triggered population explosions among insects; it poisoned fish and birds; it altered hormones in lab animals; and it showed signs of being a human carcinogen. Yet, DDT’s use continued uninterrupted until 1972 when it was finally banned.

More than fifty years after our love affair with pesticides began, we are no safer. In fact the picture is even bleaker. Pesticide use has increased astronomically since the ‘50’s. According to Steingraber, in1950 less than 10 percent of cornfields were sprayed with pesticides. In 1993, 93% were chemically treated. In California alone, the use of pesticides has increased 127% in the 90’s as reported by the Pesticide Action Network in "Hooked on Poison: Pesticide Use in California 1991-1998." The pesticides studied are classified as acute poisons, carcinogens, neurotoxins, reproductive or developmental toxins or are known to have contaminated groundwater in California. This same time period also saw a dramatic increase in pesticide intensity - the pounds of active ingredients applied per acre - up 60%, from 14.4 to 23.0 pounds per acre.

According to Susan Kegley, lead author of the report, "Pesticide use trends show California is hooked on toxic pesticides." She adds, "the use of the most toxic pesticides remains alarmingly high, indicating that the state is on the wrong track."

How do we fare in Butte County? According to the same report, not well. Butte County is listed as having one of the largest increases in the use of "CA Bad Actor" pesticides in the state, an increase of 68% from 1991-1998. "CA Bad Actor" pesticides are the most toxic pesticides currently in use. Furthermore, in the Sacramento Valley where 24,212,000 pounds of pesticides were used in 1998, we led the pack with 4,272,730 "gross pounds of active ingredients" applied to our forests, homes, and schools. Even worse, once applied, pesticides do not always stay put. They have been found in the jet stream, in the rain, in glacial aquifers, in our waterways and in our groundwater.

Fifty years later, we are still, in effect, chasing the DDT fog down our neighborhood streets. Daily we’re exposed to deadly pesticide contamination even while studies document its link to cancer, sterility, birth defects, and damage to the nervous system. The 127% increase documented in "Hooked on Poison" is especially alarming considering the concurrent increase in age-adjusted incidence of cancers associated with pesticide exposure: childhood leukemia, brain tumors, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, testicular cancer, and some forms of breast cancer.

Why do we continue to accept pesticides’ tremendous threat to our lives and health? Perhaps because that’s what humans do when they don’t know how to fight back. Or perhaps because, as wildlife biologist Rachel Carson observed in her landmark book, Silent Spring, universally common hazards assume "the harmless aspect of the familiar." Consequently, we remain asleep to the killer among us.

Yet, for those of us touched by cancer or sterility or a child’s developmental delays, it’s hard to stay asleep. We know we must do something, anything, to protect our basic human right to a clean environment and good health. We can start by joining Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR) in its campaign to reduce pesticide use here in Butte County and throughout the state. Call CPR at (888) 277-4880 or visit its website at pesticidereform.org. We have only ourselves to look to for solutions and only ourselves to blame for staying asleep.

This column originally appeared in February 2001 in the Chico Examiner.