AgroPages-Calif. Gov. Brown appoints new pesticide regulator-Agricultural news

Environmental groups are applauding the naming of a former conservation official as California's new chief pesticide regulator.

Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Brian Leahy on Thursday to head the Department of Pesticide Regulation. Leahy is the former assistant director at the California Department of Conservation, as well as a former organic farmer.

California's previous pesticide regulator, Mary-Ann Warmerdam, resigned last March to work for Clorox. Her resignation came amid an uproar over the state's approval in December 2010 of a controversial pesticide.

Warmerdam had called methyl iodide "the most evaluated pesticide in the department's history" and insisted it could be used safely with strict mitigation measures.

But environmental groups said she mishandled the evaluation and let the pesticide manufacturer sway her to overrule the recommendations of her own scientists.

DPR's scientific advisors and an independent scientist panel have said the chemical can cause cancer.