Environmental Health

EDIT: MCN is saddened to hear Thomas Duncan has passed away. We offer our condolences to his family and friends.

On September 25, Thomas Eric Duncan went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, with an unspecified illness. During the intake interview with the nurse, he noted that he had recently returned from Liberia, the country at the epicenter of the Ebola virus, which has already claimed the lives of more than 3400 people in West Africa. 

With your help, MCN added more than 17,000 voices to the call for stronger workplace protections for our nation's farmworkers. 

The proposed revisions to the Worker Protection Standard have many positive elements and I, along and many others concerned about farm worker health applaud the EPA for this long-awaited proposal.  In particular, for the first time an age requirement has been proposed to determine who is eligible to handle pesticides.  However, for unknown reasons the proposed age requirement has been identified as age 16 when it should be age 18.   There is no rationale to suggest any minor, i.e.

Last week, President Obama and every member of Congress received a copy of Seth Holmes’ Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies.  For nearly two years, physician and anthropologist Seth Holmes lived and worked as a migrant farmworker.

Your patient reports stomach pain, nausea and headache. It’s nearing the heart of flu season - these are possible flu symptoms, you think. On examination, the patient doesn’t present with a fever.

“Is anyone at home sick?” you ask.   

No.

“When did the symptoms begin?” 

Hoy (Today).

You notice the patient appears to be dressed for work. “Where were you when the symptoms began?” you ask.

En el trabajo (At work).  

At work, you think. “And what do you do for work?”

Today and tomorrow on Capitol Hill, more than a dozen farmworkers from across the nation are meeting with their members of Congress to call for the implementation of stronger protections for farmworkers from pesticides. MCN's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ed Zuroweste, MD, will join the farmworkers and a coalition of allied groups at a briefing for members of Congress and their staffers about the urgent need for an update to EPA's Worker Protection Standard. Here is the statement he will deliver today at the briefing:

   On the heels of International Worker Memorial Day, the day slated to honor the ultimate sacrifice of workers and families throughout the world, the Obama administration released a statement saying it will no longer pursue protections for children working in agriculture.

As part of our series of continuing education webinars, MCN partnered with the National Farm Medicine Center and Agrisafe Network in March to present the Nuts & Bolts of Cholinesterase Monitoring for Farmers, Ranchers and Agricultural Workers.

During the month of March, MCN is taking the opportunity to share with you a series of blog posts about poisonings and poison prevention. This week marks the 50th Anniversary of National Poison Prevention Week and MCN wants to highlight a range of topics around this emerging issue.