National Farm Worker Ministry an interfaith organization supporting farm workers as they organize for justice member organizations include nearly 40 national, state and local religious bodies
They shall not plant and another eat; - Isaiah 65:21
When we pray and act with them, we are changed also.
- Gen Cassani, SSND
NFWM Board
RECREFARM WORKERS & PESTICIDEST EVENTS
Because of their long work hours, dangerous work conditions and constant exposure to agricultural chemicals such as pesticides, farm workers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the US.
Pesticides are poisons designed to kill living beings. Exposure to pesticides, even at low levels, can cause health risks. Farm workers have an increased risk for many health problems because of their exposure to pesticides. The families of farm workers are also at risk because pesticides can contaminate clothes, skin and hair. Pesticides get brought into the home when parents return from work. They can drift into homes after being applied to nearby fields. Children are most sensitive to the effects of pesticides since their bodies are still developing. It is likely that children whose parents work in the fields already have pesticides in their system. A recent study in Californi discovered that among Latinos, farm workers had the greater risk of leukemia (59%), stomach cancer (70%), cervical cancer (63%) and uterine cancer (68%). (Cancer Registry of California, 2002) Other studies of farm workers and their families show reduced fertility and increased rates of birth defects and spontaneous abortions.
Current laws are not adequate to protect farm workers and surrounding communities from exposure to dangerous levels of pesticides. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Standards of Protection require growers who employ farm workers to take specific actions to protect their health and safety, including providing protective equipment such as gloves and masks; training on safe use of pesticides; and hand and eye washing stations with clean water in the fields.
These requirements are not sufficient to protect farm workers. Many growers violate the law frequently, causing illnesses that are not reported. Now, farm worker organizations and others who work on this issue are working with the EPA to improve requirements and to ensure that existing laws are enforced.
Children and Pesticides Children that live in or near cultivated areas, or whose families work in the fields (called “farm worker children” in this report) come into contact with pesticide residue in their parents clothes, in the dust that blows into their houses, in contaminated soil in their play areas, fruit brought from the field to the house and contaminated well water – which makes these children possibly the group most exposed to pesticides in the US. Often, these children go to work with their parents in the fields, increasing their exposure to pesticides.
There are more than 320,000 children under the age of 6 living on farms and hundreds of thousands more who live near the fields and whose parents work in the fields.
The total cost of health effects from exposure to pesticides is considerable. Economists have estimated that nationally, the cost is $786 million per year. In evaluating the cost and benefits of pesticide use it is rare that the numbers of people affected and the social costs are taken into account, along with the monetary cost.
Every day there is more scientific evidence indicating that farm worker children face significant health risks. These children belong to migrant farm worker families, who are usually poor, people of color or are recent immigrants. When their exposure level has been measured, it has been above the “safe level” as defined by the EPA. The effect of this exposure if farm from trivial:
• Children are disproportionately exposed to pesticides compared to adults because they consume more food, water and air per unit of body weight; as well as by their greater activity level, their limited diet, crawling and the tendency to put things in their mouths. • Fetuses, babies and children are particularly susceptible to pesticides in comparison with adults because their bodies can’t detoxify and eliminate chemicals as efficiently since their organs are still developing; and because they will have a full life-time to develop health complications from the exposure. • Pesticides can have a number of serious health effects, from acute poisoning to cancer, neurological effects and impact on reproduction and growth. • Many pesticides that are not used in the home are brought inside and can accumulate to 100 times the levels found outside the home. • In one rural community, 197 children were examined and they all had residue of the cancer-causing pesticide, pentachlorophenol; only 6 did not have traces of p-dichlorobenzene, which is though to be a carcinogen; and 20% of them had residue of the short lived herbicide, 2, 4-D, which has been associated with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Metabolites of organo-phosphate pesticides that are used only in agriculture were detected in the urine of 2 out of 3 children of farm workers and in 4 out of 10 children who simply lived in an agricultural area. Children older than 10 can work legally on farms, and younger children often work illegally or accompany their parents in the fields due to economic necessity and lack of child care options. These practices can result in severe poisoning and even death.
Children Born with Birth Defects In Immokalee, FL, 3 children have been born with birth defects to parents who worked picking tomatoes.
One child, Carlitos Candelario, was born on December 17, 2004, without feet or legs. On February 4, 2005, Jesus Navarrete was born with Pierre Robin Syndrome. His chin did not develop during the pregnancy and he has problems in his throat. On February 6, Maria Meza gave birth to a child who was born without a nose and with only one ear. Unfortunately, this baby died three days later.
All of these families live within 200 feet of each other in a migrant labor camp called Tower Cabins. They all work for the same tomato producer and work on the same farms on Keais Road in Immokalee. About 2 dozen pesticides and herbicides are used on these farms. The three couples worked for AgMart, which has been fined many times by Florida state inspectors for violating laws on pesticide abuse.
Charles H Bronson, State Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services has filed legal charges and has fined AgMart, a vegetable production company, for numerous violations of state and federal laws related to pesticide use. Bronson has filed two administrative complaints and four employees allege 88 separate violations. The most serious involve violations of “pre-harvest intervals” and intervals of restricted entry.”
The department launched a joint investigation into these three cases with the Collier County Health Department and the Florida State Health Department in March, 2005
