Role of Spray in Farm Worker’s Heart Failure Still a Mystery

The final laboratory results from the autopsy of an undocumented alien farm worker who collapsed in a Jamul tomato field Aug. 5 have revealed that he died of a chronic heart condition. However, it may never be known whether a pesticide contributed to his death, a deputy county coroner said.

Juan Chabolla Casillas collapsed Aug. 5 while working in a tomato field that had been sprayed earlier in the day with a highly toxic pesticide. He was taken to a Tijuana emergency clinic, where he was pronounced dead.

Monitor, the pesticide, was found on Chabolla’s hands but not in any of the tissues taken from his internal organs, Robert Bucklin, deputy coroner, said.

“All we can say is we found the pesticide on (Chabolla’s) hands,” Bucklin said. “We don’t know whether it had an effect on his death. There’s no way we can say yes or no” to whether it contributed to his death.

In a letter to Bucklin from James W. Stratton, a Berkeley doctor who arranged for laboratory tests of tissue samples taken from Chabolla during the autopsy, said chronic fibrosing myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart, was the cause of death, Bucklin said.

Bucklin said it is not clear whether the pesticide found on Chabolla’s hands got into his internal system. He added that it may never be determined whether the pesticide contributed to Chabolla’s death.

Monitor, which is listed in the Class 1 category by the state Department of Food and Agriculture, meaning it is in the most toxic range of three classes, can be absorbed through the skin, Bucklin said.

There is not enough information available to determine if the pesticide accelerated the rate of deterioration to Chabolla’s heart, Bucklin said.

Federico Sayre, a Los Angeles attorney, filed a $10-million lawsuit Aug. 28 on behalf of Chabolla’s family against Fred Hatashita, the man who took Chabolla to the Tijuana clinic and the owner of Mirada Farms, Chabolla’s employer. The firms that produced, distributed and sprayed the pesticide are also named in the suit.

Sayre said blaming the cause of death on chronic heart disease does not diminish the consequences of taking Chabolla to Tijuana for treatment instead of to nearby Grossmont Hospital, which has facilities to handle patients suffering from exposure to pesticides.

According to Jan Wessell of the state Department of Food and Agriculture, there is a 24-hour re-entry quarantine to areas sprayed with Monitor. Monitor is sprayed on crops of tomatoes, beets and cotton to control pests.

Marion Moses, director of the United Farm Workers union’s medical clinic, said other workers in the same field that day told her they saw a helicopter spraying the fields the morning Chabolla collapsed. None of the other workers complained of ailments from exposure to the pesticide, she added. The fact that Chabolla had a chronic heart ailment may have made him more susceptible to the effects of the pesticide, she said.

Moses said Hatashita had told her that the fields were sprayed that morning but that he was not aware of the 24-hour re-entry restriction. Hatashita could not be reached Friday for comment.

Moses said she also feels that the pesticide figured into Chabolla’s death. “If someone dies of pneumonia and has lung cancer, what did they have?” she asked. Chabolla “had been living with his heart ailment for some time; this was not an acute problem.”

Josephine Kiernan, a deputy district attorney, said the case is still under investigation. She said reports from various agencies will be reviewed before her office decides whether to prosecute Hatashita.