Notice warns of methyl bromide use in a local vineyard.
In Sonoma County, where an average of 49 pounds of toxic active ingredients were applied per harvested acre, the intensity of pesticide use ranked sixth among all counties in California at nearly twice the state average. The state Department of Pesticide Regulation released a 1995 pesticide-residue report the same day, finding no trace of pesticide residue in 64.6 percent of 5,502 marketplace samples. The state report found pesticides below the legal limit in more than 33 percent of the samples and notes that about 1.6 percent of the samples contained illegal levels of pesticide. But PAN says that's not good enough. According to its report, the use of cancer-causing pesticides increased 129 percent between 1991 and 1995.