USA: Concern over pesticides runs deep among agricultural workers (Real Change News, USA)
Julie ChinitzMay 15, 2006
In central Washington, agricultural workers are trying their hand at science. On a Friday evening in March, a group gathers in a Yakima union hall to learn how to operate the “Drift Catcher,” equipment that captures samples of airborne pesticides that can then be sent to a California laboratory for analysis.
Before opening plastic bins filled with test tubes, compasses, and air flow meters, the students discuss their plans for the equipment, compiling a list of friends and family who live near orchards or fields and could gather samples.
“We’re at the start of something very important,” says Carol Dansereau, executive director of the Farm Worker Pesticide Project, a nonprofit advocacy organization that has sponsored the training. A group of farm workers in Mattawa, already trained by Dansereau, is scheduled to hold its third practice run the next day.
Concern over pesticides runs deep among agricultural workers in Yakima. Over three quarters of farm laborers participating in a 2004 Washington Department of Health study said they had been exposed to pesticides at work and sickened as a result, whether in the form of a rash, nausea and vomiting, coughing, or other symptoms.
At the Drift Catcher training, student Ana Guzman, who once worked in orchards, comments that sometimes farm workers even take babies to the fields because, she explains, “We don’t have anyone to watch them.” Guzman attributes her family’s allergies to pesticides.
Yet, because these chemicals do not always stay in one place, it’s not just at work that people can be exposed. Soon after being sprayed, droplets may be carried by wind. Applied as a liquid or oil, some pesticides evaporate, travel through the air, and condense once again on a cool surface.
At times the chemicals may enter homes on the clothing and shoes of farm workers and linger inside. As part of a study on the “take-home pathway” of pesticide exposure, researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington analyzed dust samples from farm workers’ homes and vehicles, also collecting urine samples of workers and their young children. The research found an association between parents’ job tasks, the likelihood of exposure, and pesticide traces in children’s urine.
The chemicals also make their way to bodies of water. In a study conducted in 1999 and 2000, the U.S. Geological Survey detected 25 pesticide compounds flowing in the surface waters of the Yakima River Basin, in some cases exceeding levels regarded as safe for aquatic life.
Of course, pesticides can harm people as well. Some herbicides can irritate a person’s eyes, skin, and throat, while others, such as paraquat, are powerful enough to kill a person. Many insecticides work by attacking bugs’ nervous systems, and they can do the same to humans, causing headache, dizziness, and sweating. Victims of an exposure may vomit and have a hard time breathing. Their vision may become blurry, their speech slurred, and their muscles twitchy. In extreme cases, a person can die.
Nobody knows exactly how many become sick due to acute pesticide exposures each year in Washington. The state has a mandatory system for reporting pesticide incidents, but the system has many gaps.
Even when farm workers feel sick, they may not seek care — deterred by cost, inability to take time off from work, or fear of retaliation. Others who are exposed may not realize the cause of their illness, leading them to either dismiss the symptoms or go the doctor with incomplete information. And physicians, who may not be aware of an exposure or know of the surveillance system, do not report all pesticide illnesses.
Even less is known about the extent of long-term exposures.
“Anything that’s delayed, like a birth defect or cancer,” says Dansereau, “or chronic ongoing exposures causing long-term neurological impairment — that’s not even caught at all in the tracking.”
With over 800 active pesticide ingredients registered with the Environmental Protection Agency, scientists must scramble to assess the full range of possible health consequences. Pesticides have been linked to cancerous tumors, leukemia, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Scientists are also uncovering an association with Parkinson’s disease. Mental and emotional health may also suffer due to chronic exposure, and some pesticides may cause birth defects, potentially impairing children throughout their lifetimes.
Given the dangers and unknowns, organizations like the Farm Worker Pesticide Project want the state to take stronger measures against potential exposures. From their perspective, the state has been in a holding pattern when it comes to improving regulation of pesticide use.
Last year, the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) proposed a rule that would have required notice to nearby schools, day care centers, nursing homes, and hospitals before the application of certain pesticides. Yet the agency dropped the proposal in December, citing lack of consensus as well as its concern that notice could create potential liability for facilities that did not adequately pass the information along. Instead, the agency is now considering a pilot program.
The Farm Worker Pesticide Project hopes that the state will adopt a notice rule and also begin to conduct ambient air monitoring, as is done in California. There, the state posts equipment in communities where pesticides are applied to measure the concentration of the chemicals in the air. (In some cases, monitoring in California has found that children and adults were being exposed at levels considered unsafe.)
WSDA is thinking about such a program, according to Ann Wick, Agricultural Chemical Program Manager with the agency. However, she comments that it “doesn’t give you much useful information from an enforcement standpoint,” unless it is part of a scientific study.
While the agency considers its next steps, the Farm Worker Pesticide Project is handing out the Drift Catcher to agricultural workers, helping them evaluate for themselves the quality of the air they breathe.
By Julie Chinitz
Reprinted from Real Change News
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