California Farmland Doused With 2.5 Million Pounds of PFAs Pesticides Each Year, Analysis Finds

Farm fields in California, the largest US agricultural state, are sprayed each year with an average of 2.5 million pounds of pesticides containing toxic PFAS, potentially exposing millions of people to the chemicals through contaminated food, soil and drinking water, according to a new analysis of state regulatory data.

The findings in California show “how widely the potentially toxic PFAS pesticides are used on agricultural land,” Jared Hayes, a senior policy analyst for the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and co-author of the report, said in a statement. “It doesn’t make sense when plenty of non-PFAS pesticides are readily available.”

EWG’s analysis, published November 18, found that pesticides containing PFAS as active ingredients are most heavily used on land where farmers grow almonds, pistachios, wine grapes, alfalfa and tomatoes, among others.

The group developed a map showing that 52 PFAS-containing pesticides approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were sprayed in 58 counties across California from 2018 to 2023, with Fresno, Kern and San Joaquin counties most heavily doused with PFAS pesticides. The analysis cites data collected by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.

Sixty-seven per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are federally approved as active ingredients in pesticides even though the class of humanmade chemicals don’t easily break down in the environment and have been linked to various health problems.