From February 8, 2006
Groups Issue
A Follow-up Report Calling For Action To Protect Farmworkers
(Beyond Pesticides, February 8, 2006) The
Farm Worker Pesticide Project, Columbia Legal Services, Farmworker Justice
Fund, and United Farm Workers released a report today analyzing the
2nd year of Washington State’s cutting edge medical monitoring
program for farm workers. This report, More
Messages from Monitoring: Year 2 of Washington State’s Farm Worker
Medical Tracking Program, is a follow-up to last
year’s report Messages
from Monitoring: Farm Workers, Pesticides and the Need for Reform.
The Washington State monitoring programs have found that in 2005 one
in 10 workers who regularly handled organophosphate or carbamate pesticides
experienced significant depressions of cholinesterase, an essential
nervous system enzyme. The pesticide Lorsban (chlorpyrifos),
which is widely used in Washington State and elsewhere was implicated
as a prime culprit associated with nervous system impacts, with Guthion
(azinphos methyl) and other pesticides also implicated. All but one
of 59 workers with significant depressions had applied the pesticides
by airblast sprayer.
“It is time to protect the people who put food on our tables by
promoting safer ways of growing food and by taking interim steps like
air monitoring,” said Carol Dansereau, Director of the Farm
Worker Pesticide Project (FWPP).
“While implementation was better in Year 2, we strongly encourage
L&I (Washington
State Department of Labor and Industries) to employ its enforcement
authority to get out to worksites quickly and to ensure effective protection
of workers with depressed cholinesterase,” said Evi Licona of
Columbia Legal
Services, which represents workers poisoned by pesticides. “We’re
dismayed that the agency is now discontinuing the regular on-site visits
that were done in 2005, which collected invaluable information and could
be more effective if done more promptly." In addition to spotlighting
Lorsban and airblast sprayers as primary concerns, L&I site visits
found numerous violations of health and safety standards that put workers
at risk.
“Washington State’s monitoring program is a wake up call
to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to increase safeguards
for farmworkers,” said Shelley Davis, Deputy Director of the Washington
D.C.-based Farmworker
Justice Fund Inc. “EPA should ban the use of Lorsban, Guthion,
and other pesticides that are injuring farmworkers, and it should require
interim measures such as a national medical monitoring program and the
use of enclosed cabs and closed mixing and loading systems,” she
said.
“Farm workers are being exposed to nerve poisons that compromise
their nervous systems, and put them at risk of immediate and long-term
injury,” said Erik Nicholson, Western Regional Director of the
United Farm Workers.
“We can’t let this injustice continue.”
Both the English and Spanish versions of the report can be found on
the Farm Worker Pesticide Project website.
For more information contact Carol
Dansereau.
Take Action: Write to U.S.EPA Acting Administrator
Stephen Johnson
and demand adequate protection for farm workers from the dangers of
pesticides.