Here's the good news...
"We've used a lot less of the pesticides that we have been really concerned about," says Charlotte Fadipe with the Department of Pesticide Regulation.
She says fumigants and carcinogenic pesticides that are the most damaging to the environment were less common than the year before.
"Pesticides that could potentially contaminate groundwater decreased, pesticides that potentially pollute the air decreased, fumigant pesticides decreased."
The bad news is that other pesticides went up.
"Pesticides from oil for instance increased. Bio-pesticides increased," Fadipe says.
So, despite a reduction in the most toxic substances, overall pesticide use went up. Californians used nearly seven million more pounds in 2013 than it did in 2012.
Fadipe says the increase occurred even though California has the strongest regulations in the country against pesticide abuse and misuse.
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