Pesticides make us sick, field hands say in study

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Subject:   Pesticides make us sick, field hands say in study......................
 Date:      Tue, 31 Jul 2001 08:25:07 -0400
From:        Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization:     Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)

To:     Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
          Director, State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation 

cc:    Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov

Dear Mr. Helliker,  i thought you might like to read the following article:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-vol-farmworkers073001.story

Pesticides make us sick, field hands say in study

Beth Kassab Sentinel Staff Writer

July 30, 2001

PIERSON -- After a day of work in the fields here, migrant workers' arms and fingers can itch so unbearably that some seek relief by plunging their hands into cool gasoline or bleach.

Jose Reyes, a 29-year-old fern cutter, says the sensation is so painful he feels "itching on my bones." He smacks his hand against a metal pole in the fern field so the throbbing that results will mask the itching, even if for only a moment.

Rashes, allergies and headaches are common ailments among the hundreds of Central Florida fern and nursery workers interviewed as part of a new study by researchers at the University of Florida.

The researchers found that half of the workers in the four-year study -- all of whom are Mexican or Haitian -- reported skin rashes that they blamed on exposure to pesticides. Thirty-five percent of the 382 workers interviewed complained of headaches and swollen hands, while 33 percent had allergies they think resulted from frequent exposure to chemicals used to protect plants from insects and fungus.

Researchers acknowledge that the study does not prove a medical correlation between pesticides and workers' symptoms, but they say it does suggest a strong enough link to demand reform from farm owners, government officials and the farm workers themselves.

Findings 'an outrage'

The study, funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, concludes that workers and owners often ignore state and federal regulations created to protect workers from pesticides, such as a requirement to post warning signs when certain dangerous chemicals are sprayed.

The new report, conducted by researchers for UF's College of Medicine, is the most complete survey to date of Central Florida farm workers' perceptions of their working conditions. It comes to light just as the federal government is considering changes to regulations that protect farm workers. State and federal regulators, farm-worker advocates and farm owners will meet in a summit today in Orlando to discuss those regulations.

"It is an outrage," Apopka farm-worker advocate Luckner Millien said of the study's findings.

He said the thousands of farm workers in Orange, Volusia, Seminole, Lake and Polk counties, the areas targeted by the study, are trapped in jobs they know are potentially dangerous because they often live in extreme poverty with little or no education and cannot speak English.

"Sometimes because of the economic pressure on people, they do things that they really do not want to do," said Millien, a former farm worker from Haiti. "They say, 'I have to make a living, I have bills to pay, I have a wife to take care of.' "

Some skeptical of results

Not everyone is convinced that there is a connection between pesticides and health problems suggested by the study.

Greg Dixon, manager at Freeman Greenlund Fernery in rural Pierson, the epicenter of the fern industry, said he has seen the red, itchy skin rashes on the hands and arms of workers but doesn't think pesticides are to blame.

He said he handles the same bunches of ferns as the workers when he packs them for shipping but has never experienced the rashes or other symptoms.

"Whatever they're touching, we're touching, too," Dixon said.

The results of the new study, however, mirror medical studies in other states that have linked pesticides to sick farm workers, said Jerome Blondell, an epidemiologist with the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Even if [farm workers] are only exposed to a residue or a drift, sometimes they can build enough up over the course of a day that they can get sick from that," said Blondell, who tracks pesticide poisonings nationwide. Elsa Munos, one of the thousands of workers in Volusia County who handclip the leatherleaf ferns that become greenery in floral arrangements, stays bent at the waist as she wades deeper into the field of plants on a recent afternoon. She wears a plastic glove on one hand to protect her from the chemicals and layers it with a knit glove to protect her hand from prickly fern spines.

She snips stem after stem until she collects a bunch of 20 that she ties off with a rubber band. Each bunch earns her 23 cents from the field owner.

Like Munos, most workers wear gloves on one hand only. According to the study, the common perception among fern cutters is that one glove is necessary to partially guard against chemicals and fern spikes, but a glove on both hands slows workers' productivity and, consequently, decreases their pay.

Munos said she showers as soon as she gets home from work because she is afraid pesticides will spread to her home and family.

Blondell said studies have been done in other states that show people who work with pesticides often have no idea how much of it they get on their bodies.

"There has been some tracking of pesticides from the workplace into the home," Blondell said. "The farm worker goes home and plays with a 1-year-old baby, and the risk may be more to the 1-year-old than the farm worker."

It's that very fear that prompted the University of Florida study.

"As far as what the workers are going to suffer in the long term, there's just not very much information out there," said Joan Flocks, manager of the project. "I think the workers are afraid of that."

Concern about such unknowns has been an issue for decades. It was the rallying cry of the late Cesar Chavez, who led a nationwide boycott in the 1960s against grape growers who used dangerous chemicals. The Florida Legislature dealt with the issue in the early 1990s. Worker advocates successfully lobbied for a law that forces farm owners to reveal which chemicals they use on crops.

'The movie' not enough

Alfredo Bahena, a farm-worker advocate in Volusia County, said workers would do more to protect themselves if they were better trained about the potential dangers of pesticides.

The typical training session is a short video that farm owners show new workers. Known in the farm-worker community simply as "the movie," it instructs workers on basic safety tips such as washing their hands and clothes often.

"Our people do not learn anything with that video," Bahena said. "It's not interactive. Our people cannot ask questions."

Bernon Abbott, manager of Albin-Hagstrom and Son Inc. fernery in Pierson, said his company follows all regulations -- even withholding new workers' pay until they watch the video.

"We do everything but serve them Cokes and popcorn," he said. Putting more regulations on farm owners, Abbott said, is not going to help the workers.

"You can beat us to death with rules and regulations," he said. "And you're still failing, because you're not educating the worker."

Dale Dubberly, who oversees the state's enforcement of the EPA's protection standards, said he needs more money to better enforce the program.

In addition to better training, he said, the state needs money for more inspectors to go into the fields and monitor rules.

Dubberly, who met with one of the study's researchers last week, would not comment on the study. It reported that farm workers sometimes ignore the required warning signs about pesticides because they feel pressured to meet their bosses' production deadlines.

Hand-washing costs time

Time is a paramount concern for farm workers whose pay increases with their productivity.

Researchers think that is the reason farm workers don't wash their hands often throughout the day, a measure that can reduce the effect of pesticides. The study also pointed out that 90 percent of nursery workers, who have better access to facilities, washed their hands before leaving for home, while only 37 percent of fernery workers did the same.

The report showed that some fernery workers bring their own bottled water and soap to wash during the day because facilities are too far away. As part of the study, researchers designed a portable hand-washing tank that was tested recently in a Pierson fern field.

"When [the tank] was in the field, the workers were lining up to use it," project manager Flocks said. "No one really wants to go home or pick up their child covered with dirt and pesticide."

Beth Kassab can be reached at bkassab@orlandosentinel.com or 386-851-7925.

Copyright © 2001, Orlando Sentinel

Well Mr. Helliker, it is becoming more and more obvious that "workers and owners often ignore state and federal regulations created to protect workers from (your 'registered') pesticides" - it is also very clear that you never took into consideration all of the dangers this misuse creates for the innocent before you "registered" these POISONS!  When will it be "legal" (in your opinion) to use safe and far more effective (unregistered) alternatives to actually control pest problems?

Respectfully,  Stephen L. Tvedten

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