For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Environment and Climate Resource page, Farm Issues page, and our California News page.

SALINAS, Calif. (AP) – When Annette Danzer and her husband moved into a house surrounded by brush and strawberry fields on California’s Central Coast, they were drawn by the rural feel and closeness to nature.

Three years later, the couple fears the fields near Salinas could become a health threat due to potential use of the pesticide methyl iodide.

California regulators approved use of methyl iodide in December despite opposition from scientists and environmental and farmworker groups who claim it’s highly toxic and can cause cancer. The chemical would likely be used primarily in California’s $2 billion strawberry industry, which last year produced nearly 90 percent of the nation’s strawberries on over 37,000 acres.

Danzer and her husband have moved their 10-year-old son, Luke, out of a nearby elementary school because it’s close to fields that could be fumigated, and Danzer joined hundreds of thousands of others in submitting comments or signatures to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding a petition seeking to block use of the chemical. The deadline to comment on the petition, filed by the environmental group Earthjustice, is Friday, but it’s unclear whether the EPA will take any action.