Washington, D.C. - 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. An estimated 5.1 billion pounds of pesticides are applied to crops annually in the United States, and farmworkers face the greatest threat from these chemicals than any other sector of society, with thousands of farmworkers each year experiencing pesticide poisoning.
The farmworkers and allies visiting D.C. this week are calling on Congress to protect the health of farmworkers and their families by strengthening the Worker Protection Standard regulations. These rules were established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set agricultural worker safety standards for pesticide use, but have not been updated or revised for more than 20 years, despite overwhelming evidence of their inadequacy.
The nation's 1-2 million farmworkers form the backbone of the U.S. agricultural economy and many are regularly exposed to pesticides. The federal government estimates that there are 10,000-20,000 acute pesticide poisonings among workers in the agricultural industry annually, a figure that likely understates the actual number of acute poisonings since many affected farmworkers may not seek care from a physician.
Also, farmworker families are exposed to pesticides in the form of residues on workers' tools, clothes, shoes, and skin. The close proximity of agricultural fields to residential areas also results in aerial drift of pesticides into farmworkers' homes, schools, and playgrounds. Research shows that children are especially vulnerable to harms from these exposures, even at very low levels. Farmworker Justice [1] released a report today detailing farmworkers' risk of exposure to pesticides and the effects of exposure on workers and children [2].
Short-term effects of pesticide exposures can include stinging eyes, rashes, blisters, nausea, headaches, respiratory problems and even death. Cumulative long-term exposures can increase the risk for farmworkers and their children of serious chronic health problems such as cancer, birth defects, neurological impairments and Parkinson's disease.
Most workers in the U.S. look to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for standards to protect them from exposure to hazardous chemicals. Protection for farmworkers from pesticides is left to the EPA's authority under the Worker Protection Standard of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), a standard that is far more lenient than OSHA rules and is fundamentally inadequate.
Today, MCN's Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ed Zuroweste, MD, will join farmworkers and allied groups at a briefing for members of Congress and their staffers about the urgent need fo an update to EPA's Worker Protection Standard and the impacts of a failure to act on the safety and health of farmworkers.
"As a physician caring for farmworkers, I can only do so much to treat a farmworker over-exposed to pesticides," Zuroweste says. But the problem of farmworkers and pesticides goes much deeper than what I see and can do in the exam room. I am often frustrated that what could easily be avoided by prevention is much more difficult and unsatisfactory to diagnose and treat after a pesticide exposure."
The farmworkers and advocates are calling for these following changes to the Worker Protection Standard:
- Provide more frequent and more comprehensible pesticide safety training for farmworkers
- Include information about farmworker familiesí exposures to pesticides in the required training materials
- Ensure that workers receive information about specific pesticides used in their work
- Require safety precautions and protective equipment limiting farmworkersí contact with pesticides
- Require medical monitoring of workers who handle neurotoxic pesticides
Zuroweste says it is the responsibility of our protective agencies to safeguard our workers.
"The proposed changes to the Worker Protection Standards are a step in the right direction to keep the people who work tirelessly to put food on our tables, safer on the job," he said.
Read the EarthJustice Special Feature on Pesticides in Agriculture [3]and blog post about a farmworker family traveling to DC [4] to call on Congress to strengthen the Worker Protection Standard and implement stronger protections for farmworkers from pesticides.