The Growers Company ordered to pay over $100,000 for reportedly exposing workers to pesticides.

The Growers Company Inc., an agricultural producer, has been ordered to pay a fine of $125,194 for reportedly violating pesticide-related laws, exposing its employees to pesticides.

On Oct. 9, 2023, a supervisor with the company ignored pesticide warning signs on a lettuce field, according to a press release by the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office, ordering a crew of 93 fieldworkers onto a field which had been treated with pesticides within the last 24 hours. One of the pesticides was Sivanto Prime, which has a 24-hour restricted entry interval during which people are not allowed to enter the field. Sivanto Prime is an insecticide used on a wide variety of crops to ward off sap-sucking pests, including aphids, whiteflies, leafhoppers and mealybugs. 

More than two-thirds of the fieldworkers, 66 of the 93, developed symptoms including nausea, dizziness, headache and irritations to the throat, nose, eyes and skin—symptoms consistent with exposure to pesticides, according to the DA's Office. Despite legal requirements to take exposed employees in for medical care, the company reportedly only took 34 of the exposed employees in for a medical evaluation.

In addition to the $125,194 in civil penalties and costs, a felony criminal charge was also filed against the supervisor who ordered the employees into the field. He has since died, according to the press release.

The Growers Company Inc. could not be reached for comment.

The case was resolved by the Monterey County District Attorney’s Environmental Protection Unit, in collaboration with the Agricultural Commissioner’s Office.