Pesticides poison Colorado farm workers

A Project of the Migrant Farm Worker Division of Colorado Legal Services and Equal Justice Works During 2001, a group of Colorado migrant farm worker children was exposed to pesticide drift. The children experienced symptoms of severe organophosphate... More

A Project of the Migrant Farm Worker Division of Colorado Legal Services and Equal Justice Works During 2001, a group of Colorado migrant farm worker children was exposed to pesticide drift. The children experienced symptoms of severe organophosphate poisoning, requiring hospitalization. A man working in a Colorado field breathed too large a dose of insecticides. He was admitted to the emergency room with a heart rate of thirty-four. A group of field workers attempted to avoid the poison from a crop duster that doused them with pesticides. The workers ran from the toxic spray, attempting to deflect it by spraying a water hose. Across Colorado, farm workers and their children experienced chronic skin rashes, irritated eyes and no training in pesticides. Farm workers labor in pesticide-laden fields, hand picking fruits and vegetables. The Environmental Protection Agency says reported cases indicate that tens of thousands of farm workers are poisoned by pesticides every year. Bec Less