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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 2017)
Street Roots • Nov. 3-9, 2017 Page 5 News A crowded room FARMWORKERS, fro m page 4 analysis. There are no laws currently in effect, either federally or in Oregon, that protect farmworker living areas, such as at the Leary Road Camp, from pesticide spray or drift. This year, there were 309 registered farm labor camps in Oregon, housing more than 9,200 people. However farm labor advocates estimate there are hundreds of additional unregistered camps. The EPA’s aforementioned economic analysis of farmworker pesticide exposure preceded the agency’s updated Agricultural Worker Protection Standard of 2016. Most of the new rules went into effect in January, with others slated for implementation at the beginning of 2018. The rules were intended to further protect farmworkers from pesticide poisoning, and adopted portions included increased training requirements for pesticide applicators. Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, however, delayed the adoption of one of the new rules after strong opposition from farmworker advocates who thought it didn’t do much to protect workers as it was written. The rule would create Application Exclusion Zones around areas where pesticides are sprayed. Despite the name, pesticides are not actually prohibited in these zones. The law requires a 100-foot exclusion zone around the pesticide-spraying equipment, which people would have to vacate during application as the equipment moved across the field. When farmworker housing exists in a zone being sprayed, the rule states that any workers that are in that zone at the time must go inside the housing. Street Roots first reported on this proposed rule in December (see news. streetroots.org/shelterinplace). With some orchards and crops sitting close to labor camp housing, there is high potential for the pesticide to drift onto the camp area. Because of the shoddy conditions found at many of Oregon’s farm labor camps, advocates say, pesticide drift can easily seep through cracks in doorways and windows, and also ends up as residue on outdoor eating, cooking, laundry and children’s play areas. In response, OSHA convened an advisory committee of stakeholders, including farmworker advocates, growers and farm industry lobbyists, to assist in drafting a stronger rule that Oregon would adopt in place of the EPA’s protection standard. What followed was six months of contentious meetings in which advocates and growers often engaged in heated exchanges over what the new rules should at the E & S Farms worker camp in Woodburn houses six farmworkers. Besides three bunk beds and some shelving, there is little furniture for storage or dining. P H O T O B Y E M IL Y G R E E N rule should be based on data. adequate because on the label of some of In an interview with Street Roots, Wood these products they use, there’s a no-entry Get involved said a buffer zone is out of the question interval of four hours, 12 hours, and some HUM ANELY PRO DUCED FOOD because there is no precedent for his of them even more than 24 hours.” To find out more about the “Responsibly agency, OSHA, to ban a legal pesticide in a This re-entry interval would still apply to Grown, Farmworker Assured” label, visit context such as that. the treated area but would not cover any OSHA’s authority, while broad, “does not area that was potentially affected by equitablefood.org. extend to banning any particular work pesticide drift. O S H A ’S P R O P O S E D R U L E S activities,” Wood said. “It is, at best, Growers have repeatedly pointed to low T h e open co m m en t period for O S H A ’s uncertain whether we would have the rates of reported pesticide drift and to the authority to ban the use of an otherwise proposed rules on the Worker lack of data on how often drift affects legal pesticide within a buffer zone.” Protection Standard Application farmworker housing. In advisory meetings, some growers said Exclusion Zone ends Dec. 15, and a At the August meeting, Scott Dahlman sheltering in place made more sense than told the committee that he had gone series of public hearings will be held evacuating if evacuating meant workers through every spray drift investigation over across the state. Closest to Portland will would leave only to walk back through the the past three years and there were only be the hearings in Woodburn: 6 p.m. Application Exclusion Zone right after the two. Nov. 15 at CAPACES Leadership application. “One had drift; one did not,” he said. “I Institute, an d 11 a .m , N ov. 16 at the . At the heart of the issue, however, is an know there are barriers to reporting, but it’s Woodburn Grange. industry that relies heavily on pesticides to good to take a look at the numbers we do get the job done. have.” PUBLIC COMMENT “We need to find sustainable methods of Dahlman is the policy director at To submit a public comment to OSHA agriculture,” said Arkin, who’s been present Oregonians for Food and Shelter, whose top before the Dec. 15 deadline: at every committee advisory meeting. “I donors include agrichemical giant Monsanto B y m a il: Department of Consumer and know that organic farmers will tell you it can and Dow Chemical Co. be done. And maybe not all farmers want to Business Services at Oregon OSHA, Low rates of reported drift had come up go organic, but I think we can certainly be 350 Winter St. NE, Salem, OR 97301- at an advisory meeting in April, as well, to less toxic and more sustainable.” which Wood asked, “I think the question is, 3882 The rule as it’s written applies to is all drift reported?” B y e m a il: tech.web@oregon.gov farmworkers, but protections are also needed He went on to explain pesticide drift is a B y fa x : 503-947-7461 for forestry workers, said Carl Wilmsen, lot like speeding: It’s illegal, but it’s director at NW Forestry Workers Center. OSHA information: Call 503-947-7449 happening anyway, so it needs to be “In the survey we did of 150 forest mitigated. workers in the Rogue Valley in 2011, he “Highways aren’t designed to only be safe Regardless, his agency proposed a new said, “half of the workers in our sample said at 65 miles per hour,” he said. set of rules in October. The rules still they had worked with pesticides in the Breezes as slow as 9 or 10 mph, as well require workers to shelter in place, however previous five years, and 25 percent of these as other weather factors such as language has been added around securing said that they had gotten sick from doors and windows and turning off air intake temperatures above 70 degrees Fahrenheit pesticides.” or humidity below 40 percent, can cause mechanisms. Of the seven lawsuits PCUN is currently pesticides to drift, remain buoyant in the air The new rules also have the added waging against harmful pesticides, one came or evaporate into smaller particles that are requirement that workers evacuate housing close to getting chlorpyrifos off the shelves. easily carried away, according to experts at in an expanded 150-foot distance from the “Last year, EPA determined, at the Oregon State University s Integrated Plant applicator when the pesticide being sprayed recommendation of their scientists, that the Protection Center. requires that the worker spraying it wear a In addition to the evacuation requirement, chemical agents in chlorpyrifos were very respirator. People must remain evacuated dangerous to children and pregnant women. OSHA added a provision to the new rules from the area for 15 minutes. Any contact, even from drift, would cause requiring that farmers build storage sheds During the final advisory committee neurological damage in children and in be. where workers can store their boots and meeting in August, an attorney who Some growers argued that because the unborn fetus,” Ramirez said. “We were shoes to prevent them from tracking represents farmworkers at Oregon Law negotiating with the EPA to get it banned, EPA under President Donald Trump was pesticides into their homes. Center, Nargess Shadbeh, had argued that and then the election happened.” likely throwing out the new rules anyway, Arkin suggested farmers should also be workers should be given alternative housing there was no reason for Oregon to add its Now, he said, that decision has been required to offer their residents tarps so or motels during evacuations. reversed, and PCUN has filed a complaint own version. they can cover picnic tables and outdoor While growers said this would be OSHA Administrator Michael Wood said and is preparing to take the EPA back to cooking and play areas. expensive, she argued that health care is the EPA has already taken the initial steps court. Advocates say they would also like to see expensive too. of withdrawing the Application Exclusion “We know that the growers are not OSHA implement a 100-foot buffer zone “Twice a year, reserve motels,” she said. making enough money, that in America we Zone rule. . . . ,, around housing where no pesticides can be “Some workers are taking it out of their own “We have some informal indications that eat too cheap,” he said, but for the sprayed at all. wages now for their children because they it’s likely,” he said, “and frankly, looking at farmworker, it’s not cheap.” Growers argued that 100 feet was an are concerned.” the overall regulatory climate in arbitrary number and that because it would Beyond Toxics Director Lisa Arkin said of Washington, D.C., their enthusiasm for rule See FARMWORKERS, page 10 not be the state that bore the costs, any new the new proposal, “Fifteen minutes is not making of any sort is fairly limited.”
