M8.4 Chemical Policy Reform

I chose to read the sixth option, protection of workers and communities who are exposed to chemicals/pesticides. I thought this was an important one for our own bay area has we have a ton of people who work the Salinas/Monterey valley and are exposed to a number of chemicals. This valley produces all varieties of berries, lettuce, and artichokes. The surrounding communities, castro valley, seaside, and Watsonville are therefore exposed to a bunch of chemical run off to stream, dirt, and workers from their shoes and clothes.

As mentioned in this article, the main issue is environmental justice. The best berries in the world come from this land but we treat the surrounding area terribly. There is not one really decent hospital. The closet one is Dominican in Santa Cruz.

What are the companies doing for their workers. As an outsider, I cannot really tell. But the companies are Dole and Driscoll's to name the big companies. I wonder if they are implementing the hierarchy of health and safety controls as recommended by the article. This includes personal protective equipment. However, I drive down Hwy 1 quite often and have never seen any PPE on any worker in the field!

I would completely back a community based environment health and safety clinic as one option for thwarting this issue. It would establish health and exposure standards for all pesticides in conjunction with federal and state levels. Practitioners would be well versed and trained for pesticide management for these communities and workers (separate from the hospitals).

Comments

  1. Sandy TanOctober 19, 2018 at 12:31 PM

    Hi Dan,
    A lot of local health department seems to lack a comprehensive environmental health program, so developing a community-based environmental health and safety clinic sounds like a great idea.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 24, 2018 at 12:21 AM

    Hey Dan,
    I would find it surprising if companies are actually doing something to prevent the exposure of their chemicals to their workers if they're not required to by law. As we've seen in a lot of readings for this class, it seems like the health of workers and public is the last priority in corporations' minds.

    ReplyDelete

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