26-04-2003, 12:25 PM
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Pesticides and farm kids
On Tuesday, in article
"Wayne Parrott" wrote:
Oz wrote:
Brian H. writes
The point I was attempting to make(obviously not very well) was
agricultural workers ingress unknown quantities of chemicals.
They shouldn't, unless they are both stupid and careless.
That is a really a very very limited world view. How about if the
farmers cannot read labels in English, or are illiterate and uneducated,
and there no government agencies that enforce safety? In many
developing tropical countries, it is common to see pesticides applied to
excess by folks who cannot readthe labels on the imported chemicals, who
have no protective clothing,and who have no way to wash the residues off
their person. There is a large world out there, and the living/farming
conditions are not always pretty.
This isn't just a problem in third-world countries.
I know a teacher in California, in an agricultural area, who has told me
of the widespread functional illiteracy of the agricultural workers, the
apparently minimal safety and heavy use of pesticides, and the general
poverty. Most of the workers are illegal immigrants.
There isn't, it seems, anything like the rules we are expected to
follow, not even a Voluntary Initiative.
--
David G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger.
"Let me get this straight. You're the KGB's core AI, but you're afraid
of a copyright infringement lawsuit over your translator semiotics?"
From "Lobsters" by Charles Stross.
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