The Monterey County District Attorney announced that her Environmental Protection Unit resolved a case against The Growers Company, Inc. (“Growers”) for violations of pesticide-related laws, which exposed its employees to pesticides.

Specifically, on October 9, 2023, a supervisor for Growers ignored pesticide warning signs on a lettuce field and ordered his crew of 93 fieldworkers into a field that had been treated with various pesticides not 24 hours prior. One such pesticide, Sivanto Prime, had a 24-hour restricted entry interval during which no one was allowed to enter the field.

Sivanto Prime (also labeled as Sivanto 200 SL in some formulations) is a systemic insecticide manufactured by Bayer Crop Science, with the active ingredient flupyradifurone. While effective for integrated pest management (IPM), its risks stem from potential human exposure during application, handling, or re-entry into treated areas. Risks are primarily acute (short-term) from dermal, inhalation, or ocular contact, with low chronic (long-term) concerns at labeled use rates.

Sixty-six of the fieldworkers developed symptoms consistent with exposure to pesticides, including nausea, dizziness, headache, and irritation to the throat, nose, eyes, and skin. Moreover, despite legal requirements to take all exposed employees to a physician for medical care, Growers only took 34 of the exposed employees to a physician for evaluation.

The judgment requires Growers to pay a $125,194 in civil penalties and costs and includes injunctive terms prohibiting them from violating these requirements in the future.

A felony criminal charge was also filed against the Growers’ supervisor who ordered the employees into the field, but he has since passed away.

The Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office investigated this incident and referred the case to the District Attorney’s Office as a “priority investigation,” pursuant to 3 CCR section 6128, subdivision (e), because the incident caused over five persons to become ill.

This is not the first such enforcement under Pacioni’s tenure (elected in 2018 as the county’s first female DA). In 2021, three companies – Norcal Harvesting, Bay View Farms, and R&T Farms – paid $110,000 combined for failing to notify workers of a fumigant buffer zone (using Tri-Form 80 EC), leading to eye irritation in eight employees.

More recently, in an undated but recent case, Azcona Harvesting, LLC was fined $55,000 for not immediately seeking medical care after 27 workers suffered nausea and vomiting from pesticide drift at Reiter Berry Farms; the applicator paid $195,200 separately.

These cases, investigated similarly by the Ag Commissioner’s Office, show a pattern: drift/entry violations often stem from rushed operations, with penalties focusing on deterrence via fines and training mandates.

Nationally, the EPA tracks over 10,000 pesticide illness cases yearly, with California leading due to its ag scale -Monterey accounts for ~20% of the state’s incidents.

District Attorney Investigator George Costa assisted in the District Attorney’s investigation. The Growers Company cooperated with the Agricultural Commissioner’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office during its investigation.