Pesticide Dangers and Farm Workers

* Re “Ag Office’s New Outlook,” Ventura County editorial, Nov. 14.

I appreciate The Times’ effort to continue to inform readers about a health issue of critical importance to the residents of Ventura County and especially for those who live near or whose children attend schools located next to current chemically intensive agricultural production.

As this editorial stated, the concerns about pesticide use should be handled more sensitively by Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail and his office. The controversy between the dependence on toxic chemicals by corporate agribusiness and its neighbors is justified, especially when you consider that Ventura County is in the top 10 counties in amount of pesticides used in the state of California.

I am concerned though, about the fact that your piece failed to make reference to an even greater problem related to pesticide use: occupational exposure to multiple toxic chemicals by farm workers throughout the year in the course of their work. In this regard, the office of the Ventura County agricultural commissioner has an even greater responsibility to ensure that the health and safety of farm workers is not ignored and that every necessary step to ensure complete and proper enforcement of worker safety regulations is followed by every grower, farm labor contractor and pest control operator in Ventura County.

I sincerely hope that with the additional staff and resources (especially bilingual / bicultural staff) available to this office, there will be a concerted effort to protect the well-being of farm workers and their families.

CESAR HERNANDEZ

Community Worker

California Rural Legal Assistance

Migrant Farmworker Project

Oxnard