Slow Death: Families Fear Pesticide Poisoning After Trump Reverses Ban

"The administration’s rejection of the science on chlorpyrifos, widely used in California’s Central Valley, means its use will continue – and Latino residents are worried their children’s health issues will worsen along with it"

"A white cloud of pesticides had drifted into Fidelia Morales’s backyard, coating her children’s swing set.

The 40-year-old mother of five gestured toward the citrus groves that surround her house in California’s Central Valley as she recounted when an air blast sprayer sent chemicals floating onto her property last year – landing on her family’s red and blue jungle gym.

“We know this is dangerous for the kids, but what are we supposed to do?” she said on a recent afternoon, speaking in Spanish through a translator. Morales said she fears that these kinds of drifts, as well as long-term exposure to a variety of chemicals in the air, have hurt her children, ages 9 to 20, who have struggled to focus in school and have suffered from bronchitis, asthma and other chronic illnesses."

Sam Levin reports for the Guardian April 17, 2017.