There will soon be new guidelines on where Kern County farmers can spray a popular pesticide linked to health defects. Chlorpyrifos sprays may have to be 450 feet apart and at least that distance from schools and homes beginning next month.

Some tests show the pesticide can cause neurological damage in children, and it may also be one of the chemicals that sickened farm workers during a pesticide drift into a southwest Bakersfield garlic field earlier this month.

It is most often used on citrus and grape plants in Kern County.

Kelli Forsch