BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE FOOD and AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE
Senator Dean Florez, Chairman
BILL NO: AB 1069 HEARING: 6/16/09
AUTHOR: Monning FISCAL: Yes
VERSION: 5/4/09 CONSULTANT: John Chandler
Plant pests: eradication: pesticide use: notice.
BACKGROUND AND EXISTING LAW
The Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is charged with
preventing the introduction or spread of injurious insects or
animal pests, plant or animal diseases, and noxious weeds. Upon
the discovery of any pest, CDFA must notify the commissioner in
the county the pest is found and furnish a statement on the best
known methods for eradicating or controlling the discovered
pest.
CDFA is required to produce a list of potential invasive pests
and outline plans for addressing an infestation. In the event
an invasive pest enters California and pesticides are used as a
control agent in an urban area, it would specify that CDFA must
notify the local government, agriculture commissioner, and
health officer. CDFA must also notify the public of the
following: the existence of the invasive pest; the consequences
of not eradicating, controlling, or managing it; the active and
inert material of the pesticide to the extent that the
disclosure is permitted under state and federal law; methods for
pesticide application; implications of the pesticide on human
health, domestic animals, fish and wildlife, and the
environment. CDFA must also hold public hearings in the areas
affected before application and establish a telephone hotline to
report illness issues.
Further, CDFA is required to notify as soon as feasible the city
and county in the area affected by an urban pest eradication
spray. The notice must contain the likely dates and approximate
time of all proposed pesticide applications in the eradication
area, the pesticide to be applied, any health and safety
precautions that should be taken, and the telephone number and
address of public health personnel familiar with the
eradication.
The current practice of CDFA under an eradication program is to
provide a toll free number, which is typically contracted with
California Poison Control System (CPCS), due to their staff
being medical professionals trained in telephone response to
health concerns and evaluations, and in making recommendations
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based upon that evaluation for callers to take certain actions,
including referral to physicians. CDFA, in conjunction with
other state departments, provides CPCS staff with training in
the pesticide product to be used, the potential health effects
of that product and other relevant information needed to
properly evaluate the concerns of the caller. CPCS logs all
calls into a data system and does follow-up with certain
callers, doctors, and when there was a hospital admission.
ACR 117 (Laird) of 2008 outlined the history of the Light Brown
Apple Moth (LBAM) activities and requested that CDFA and others
answer concerns over health and environmental impacts of the
pheromone pesticide and aerial applications. It also asked for
an independent analysis of such impacts and the response to the
recommendations made in the Consensus Report. This bill was
held under submission in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 2760 (Leno) of 2008 required CDFA to complete an
Environmental Impact Report prior to a pesticide application in
an urban area for eradication of LBAM. This bill was held under
submission in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
AB 2763 (Laird), Chapter 573, Statutes of 2008, required CDFA to
develop and maintain a list of invasive animals, plants, and
insects likely to enter California; required CDFA to plan for
appropriate responses to these invasive pests and required CDFA
to follow specific protocols based on the plan if pests enter
the state.
AB 2764 (Hancock) of 2008 prohibited the Secretary (secretary)
of CDFA from approving the application of a pesticide in an
urban area, unless the Governor proclaims a state of emergency.
This bill failed passage in the Assembly Committee on
Agriculture.
AB 2765 (Huffman) Chapter 574, Statutes of 2008, required the
secretary or the county agricultural commissioner, prior to
aerial application of a pesticide under an eradication project
in an urban area, to hold at least one public meeting as
described and list all ingredients of the pesticide used in its
formula.
AB 2892 (Swanson) of 2008 required voter approval prior to an
aerial application of pesticides. This bill was held in the
Assembly Committee on Local Government.
SCR 87 (Migden) of 2008 requested CDFA to impose a moratorium on
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any aerial spraying that may be a part of the LBAM eradication
program until CDFA can demonstrate that the pheromone compound
it intends to use is both safe to humans and effective at
eradicating LBAM. This bill failed passage in the Assembly
Committee on Agriculture.
SB 556 (Wiggins) Chapter 190, Statutes of 2007, created the LBAM
program within CDFA; created an account within the Food and
Agriculture Fund and provided that those funds be available for
expenditure without regard to fiscal year; required CDFA to
annually review the progress made by each local agency in
eradicating LBAM and make recommendations, as needed, to improve
individual local agency eradication efforts; required an annual
legislative report to be submitted on January 10, beginning in
2008; and required that eradication activities conducted
pursuant to this bill to comply with all applicable laws, and be
conducted in an environmentally responsible manner.
PROPOSED LAW
AB 1069 will:
Require CDFA's hotline for urban pest eradication
spraying to be toll free, staffed by public health
personnel familiar with the pesticide being sprayed, record
all health complaints into a database, and provide a claim
report form.
Require that notice to the public of likely pest
eradication sprayings in urban areas include the toll free
hotline number and the purpose of the hotline number.
COMMENTS
1.Proponents state that AB 1069 will provide more clarity to the
AB 2763 (Laird), Chapter 573, Statutes of 2008 provision, for
an information hotline. If you provide a hotline for health
complaints related to a pest eradication program, it would be
beneficial to have health personnel staffing the phones and
answering questions who are familiar with the pesticides being
applied. AB 1069 will ensure that the public will have
knowledge and access to hotline staff that are best able to
identify and direct them to any needed evaluations or
treatment. Further, proponents state that this bill will help
provide an effective method of monitoring pesticide-related
illness associated with pest eradication efforts by requiring
hotline staff to record suspected illness calls in a database.
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2.Currently, during a pest eradication program, CDFA is required
to provide a phone number to report potential illness.
Typically, CDFA staffs this phone with staff from the
California Poison Control System since they are medical
professionals trained in phone response to health concerns and
evaluations. The committee may want to consider if it is
already current practice of CDFA to use medical professionals
for the hotline is further legislation needed?
3.The Senate Rules Committee has doubled referred this bill to
the Senate Environmental Quality Committee as the second
committee of referral. Therefore, if this measure is approved
by this committee, the motion should include an action to
re-refer the bill to the Senate Committee on Environmental
Quality.
PRIOR ACTIONS
Assembly Floor 53-27
Assembly Appropriations12-4
Assembly Agriculture 5-3
SUPPORT
Center for Environmental Health
Citizens for Health
Marin Against the Spray
People against Chemical Trespass
Pesticide Watch
Play Not Spray
Stop the Spray
29 individuals
OPPOSITION
None received