Farm worker picking strawberries from low lying strawberry plants. Watsonville, California.
Source: iStock
Monday, January 3, 2011
Jose Hidalgo knows what pesticide exposure can do. He's experienced dizziness, headaches and a burning throat after smelling the chemicals as he worked picking strawberries in Ventura County.
When he heard the state had approved a new pesticide made of methyl iodide, a chemical linked to cancer, the farmworker who splits his time between Ventura and Monterey counties was scared.
"I am afraid of pesticides," Hidalgo said, "and now they are telling me there's a pesticide that causes cancer."
Without health insurance or sick leave and, Hidalgo said, little freedom to speak up about safety on job, he decided to fight the new pesticide by joining a lawsuit to reverse its approval.
"I'm here speaking to you because many farmworkers are too scared to talk about the dangerous in the field," said 35-year-old Hidalgo.