Petition EPA to implement pesticide exposure testing for farmworkers

[confludemocrat]

Test of Farm Workers in Washington Reveals Toxic levels of Pesticide Exposure

A court-ordered program to test farm workers who have handled pesticides has shown that over 20% of those tested showed significant drops in levels of cholinesterase—an enzyme essential to proper nervous system function. Twenty-six workers in the study, (over 4%) showed a significant enough drop in cholinesterase levels to be removed from the job. Symptoms of exposure include nausea, headaches, fatigue, and seizures, or in severe cases, long-term memory loss, paralysis, or even death. The pesticides most often cited in the study included chlorpyrifos (Lorsban), azinphos methyl (Guthion), carbaryl (Sevin) and formetanate (Carzol). The United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (UFW) is now circulating an online petition asking EPA to implement a national cholinesterase monitoring program.

To sign the petition visit: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/PesticideMonitoring

http://www.seedsofchange.com/enewsletter/issue_45/news.asp

[donsu]

1. done

nt

[Extend a Hand]

2. yes, some anecdotal evidence...

my mom grew up in so. Alabama in the thirties and forties. She told me about a girl she went to school with that lived out on a farm in the middle of the cotton fields. They all thought the girl was a hypochondriac and teased her because she was constantly complaining of a variety of symptoms. She ended up dying in her early forties. Her symptoms were believed to have been caused from living in the middle of the fields where all the crop dusting pesticides were sprayed.

I signed the petition.