4 Seminars Held Countywide on Pesticide Perils
As a child, Noelia Chavez spent summers and after-school hours working with her parents and siblings in the fields of Ventura County picking tomatoes, chilies and berries.
Now Chavez works to help the county’s farm laborers through El Concilio of Ventura County. She was among a small group of community outreach workers who attended a workshop Friday on pesticide poisoning sponsored by California Rural Legal Assistance group.
“The thing that gets me is the exposure of children to pesticides,†Chavez said. “We were a family of farm workers. And now to see (pictures during the workshop of) babies in their carriages next to their mothers in the fields is very painful for me as a mother.â€
The workshop was one of four held in Ventura County on Friday by Dr. Marion Moses, president of the Pesticide Education Center based in San Francisco.
Moses, who worked with Cesar Chavez during the grape boycotts of the ‘60s before she became a doctor, offered seminars Friday to outreach workers, labor lawyers, doctors, nurses and farm workers.
About 40 physicians from Ventura County Medical Center heard Moses discuss symptoms of pesticide poisoning that show up immediately following exposure and those that may not appear for years. She talked about the need to protect pregnant women from pesticide exposure and said farm workers are frequently exposed, regardless of laws designed to protect them.
She said that everyone, whether urban or rural residents, should reduce their exposure to pesticides at work and at home.
“Farm workers and their children have the biggest burden of pesticide poisonings,†she said. “But increasing urban use is also a problem. People use these pesticides to treat their homes for ants and to treat their yards for weeds.â€
Many of the pesticides used legally on farms and in homes in Ventura County and the United States can cause cancer, birth defects, sterility and stillbirth, Moses said.
“It’s not just a farm worker problem,†she said. “It’s a problem we all have.â€
Emanuel V. Benitez, a CRLA employee who helps migrant workers, said farm workers continually ask him about rashes that develop on their arms and chests after working in strawberry fields.
“They are given cream and told that it’s allergies,†he said. “After today, I know that it can be allergies. But I also know that it can be caused by pesticides.â€
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