SALINAS — The use of pesticides in the Pajaro Valley has drawn further scrutiny in recent months, especially with various demonstrations and the efforts of a 30-day hunger strike by local activists.

A study by the UC Berkeley Center for Environmental Research and Environmental Health published in the peer-reviewed online journal BMC Public Health Tuesday delivered a new statistic. It found that while the overall amount of organophosphate pesticide use in California decreased between 2016 and 2021, the amount of pregnant people living within 1 kilometer of fields that use organophosphate pesticides was at 7.5%.

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Monterey County had the highest percentage of births in 2021 from those who lived within that 1-kilometer radius at 50%, but Santa Cruz County was not far behind

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