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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 2017)
News Page 4 Street Roots • Nov. 3-9, 2017 Third World conditions' New rules to protect Oregon’s farmworkers from pesticide poisoning fa il to do so, advocates say P H O T O B Y E M IL Y G R E E N A t E&S Farms Inc. in Woodburn, one-room living quarters house farmworkers and their families. About 200 people live at this three-building camp during peak season. BY EMILY GREEN attempt to limit or ban the use of select pesticides handled by the farmworkers it o get to the Leary Road labor camp from represents - ones known to have harmful human health effects. downtown Woodburn, you have to drive As we walked up to the rows of housing, past an expansive strip of “premium” retail outlet stores sitting on the west side of clues to life in the camp were scattered about. A toddler-sized bicycle sat outside one of the Interstate 5. rooms. A picnic table sat outside another. Work “We have the Woodburn malls and we have boots lay next to the doorstep we approached. tons of people - it’s the second-most-visited Above an air-conditioner, an open window was place in Oregon,” Ramón Ramírez said as the sectioned off with cardboard and duct tape. outlet mall appeared through the car’s Two Spanish-speaking men from Bakersfield, passenger-side window. Calif., invited us inside. “And less than a mile away,” he continued, There was no bathroom and no running “are Third World conditions.” water, although communal hygiene facilities Within five minutes, we arrived at the camp. were available in a nearby building. Three single-level buildings housing one- The room had little furniture other than room living quarters sat adjacent to the berry three bunk beds and some shelving. fields at E&S Farms Inc. Clotheslines reached A propane tank, water pitcher and ice chest across a grassy lawn in front of the camp. sat next to a table covered with dirty dishes, Ramirez said that during peak season, those hot sauce, seasonings and empty soda cans. lines would be covered with clothing, blowing The men said there are six workers living in in the wind to dry. that single, crowded room, and each pays $100 “There’s other farms that I can’t take you to a month in rent. because we would have problems going in,” he It was mid-September, and the farm was said, explaining that many have hired guards to operating with a skeleton crew. keep advocates like him from entering. This is the time of year, Ramirez said, that Ramirez is the director at Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, better known farmers should be spraying their fields with pesticides - not when camps like this one are as PCUN. It’s the largest Latino labor union in Oregon, primarily representing immigrant farm filled to the brim with workers and their children. He said about 200 people live at this and forestry workers. camp during peak season. PCUN is based in Woodburn, where it also The health impacts from pesticide exposure broadcasts a Spanish radio station. It’s in farmworkers, their children and pregnant currently involved in seven lawsuits against the women are well documented, with links to Environmental Protection Agency, mainly in an STAFF WRITER T "O ar people are fe ltin g eaaeer and all other hinds el diseases« Ipiaphoisia^ diabetes^ tendonitis^ bach problems - we^re paying the price so that Mnterleans can eat cheap/" ftA^dW RAMIREZ, P C U N D IR E C T O R miscarriage and birth defects from prenatal exposure, neurological and other development effects in growing children, as well as links to a wide range of cancers, tumors and other serious health effects in adults, according to a 2015 EPA economic analysis. Farmworkers have a significantly shortened lifespan, Ramirez said, and in Marion County there is some evidence to suggest they may have as much as a 50 percent higher rate of miscarriages. This was the unscientific conclusion of health workers at Salud Medical Center in Woodburn after the clinic began to notice a rash of miscarriages among farmworker women about 12 years ago, Ramirez said. Salud did not respond to a request for verification. Farmworker exposure to pesticides happens in the field, but also when chemicals come into contact with living-area surfaces from spray drift or are tracked into the home on workers’ clothing and shoes, according to the EPA See FARMWORKERS, page 5
