Ventura County farmworkers and environmentalists protested potential changes in the way pesticides are regulated at a public hearing Monday night.

"We would like to ask that less pesticides are used for the good of the farmworkers," said Graciela Silva, a Santa Paula resident who said she has become sick from chemical exposure.

About a dozen people in the crowd of 45 spoke in favor of tighter regulations.

The hearing dealt with a proposal from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to reduce fumigant use more gradually than what a court recently ordered and to a lesser degree.

The department is proposing that the reductions take place gradually until 2012 so farmers can adjust to the changes and that more fumigants be allowed in that year than what is now being proposed.

A court ordered in December that to clean up the air, farmers must decrease fumigant use by 20 percent of 1991 standards. The judge ruled that reductions were to take place immediately — beginning in January of this year — but the Environmental Protection Agency still has to weigh in on the matter.

The changes DPR was proposing at Monday's meeting would take place only if the judge reverses an earlier decision and the EPA signs off on the change.

Fumigants are widely used on strawberries in Ventura County, which represented a $366 million industry in 2006.

Most of those who spoke Monday said a reduction in pesticide use is urgent.

"I'm concerned about continuing to pollute our finite resources," said Santa Paula resident Kathryn Bennar.

Araceli Centeno, a community organizer with Poder Popular in Oxnard, helped gather about 100 signatures from farmworkers asking that stricter regulations be put in effect. She said farmworkers suffer various illnesses from chemical exposure while on the job.

Erica Hernandez, 17, said both her parents work in the fields and have become sick at various times from inhaling chemicals.

"What do my people need to do to stop this?" she said. "Please help us achieve a healthier environment for all of us."

Ventura County Agricultural Association President Rob Roy spoke on behalf of farmers, saying that an overnight adoption of fumigant reductions would have a dramatic economic effect on the farmers who rely on the fumigants as part of their livelihood and farmers are actively working on ways to reduce fumigant use on their crops.