"Estuve presente en un lugar donde le estaban haciendo
preguntas a una señorita que había sido afectada por los pesticidas.
Es que andaban trabajando en la labor y pasa un avión que rocea la
pesticida..."
14.4 
28.8
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Pesticides and Migrant Farmworkers (cont.)
Most migrant and seasonal farmworkers work picking fruits and vegetables.
Because most harvesting machines damage or bruise the produce and there
is a demand by American store owners and consumers for blemish free produce,
manual labor is used to do this work, increasing the exposure of workers
to pesticides.
A 1988 study of 460 hired farmworkers in Washington state found that
89 percent did not know the name of a single pesticide to which they had
been exposed, and 76 percent had never received any information on appropriate
protection measures.
Both OSHA and the EPA have laws on the books which apply to migrant and
seasonal farmworkers. Because of possible jurisdictional difficulties, and
because of the overlap in the regulations, OSHA deferred its standard to
the EPA Worker Protection Standard. Although in 1983 the EPA determined
that the Worker Protection Standard provided insufficient protection to
farmworkers and needed revision, the revised standard scheduled to go into
effect in 1994 was deferred until 1995.
Pesticides must be registered for specific uses by the EPA. The agency
considers the economic, social, and environmental risks and benefits of
the pesticide before issuing the registration. Unfortunately, the vast majority
of the data the EPA uses to make its determinations is provided by the pesticide
manufacturers themselves. Data on older pesticides is considered incomplete
by modern scientific standards, and the health effects of these substances
are not fully understood.
In 1939 there were 32 pesticide products registered with the Department
of Agriculture; in 1989 there were 729 active-ingredient pesticide chemicals
mixed with other ingredients and formulated into 22,000 commercial products.
American agriculture is the largest consumer of pesticides, averaging 1
billion pounds per year.
Exposure to pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, defoliants not only can
cause health problems for the worker, but also to the developing fetus and
offspring. A higher than normal incidence of breast cancer, testicular cancer,
prostate cancer and stomach cancer has been reported.
Because many of the pesiticides contain alkyphenol ethoxylates (APEs)
which disrupt the endocrine system, there is a higher than normal incidence
of reproductive health problems in both men and women including spontaneous
abortions, low sperm counts, still births and physically and mentally impaired
children.
While not cognizant of the types, chemical compositions, and function
of the pestices to which they are exposed, farmworkers nevertheless perceive
the danger of pesticides, but feel powerless to do anything about the situation.
Hence, psycho/social stress relating to this issue compounds the already
high levels of stress among farmworkers as they deal with work and survival.
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