Study: Farmworkers More Diseased

[Guest guest]

This report cited by the AP highlights the importance of health care coverage

and education for farmworkers.

Study: Farmworkers More Diseased

By KIM BACA

..c The Associated Press

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - A state agency's study found that Hispanic farmworkers

have higher rates of brain, leukemia, skin and stomach cancers than other

Hispanics in California, a phenomenon their union blames on pesticide

exposure.

Female Hispanic farmworkers also had more cases of uterine cancer than the

rest of the state's Hispanic women, according to the Cancer Registry of

California study, ``Cancer Incidence in the United Farm Workers of America,

1987-1997.''

The study, published in the November issue of the American Journal of

Industrial Medicine, doesn't directly link pesticide use to the higher rates

of cancer.

Another study will examine what pesticides were used and how long farmworkers

were exposed to them, said Mills, the study's author and cancer

epidemiologist at the Cancer Registry.

But the UFW believes there is a direct relationship between the chemicals and

cancer, said Doug Blaylock, the union's medical plan administrator.

Bob Krauter, California Farm Bureau Federation spokesman, said that without

discounting for family histories and lifestyles, there's no way to prove a

direct link.

``Just because workers work in an agricultural setting where pesticides were

used, they say, 'We're attributing this to pesticides.' I just don't see the

connection there,'' he said.

ph Wiemels, a cancer epidemiologist at the University of California at

San Francisco, cautioned that with general population studies like the

registry study, ``there are so many opportunities for bias because you're

roughly putting data together.''

The registry used data from 146,581 farmworkers who had been members of the

union from 1973 to 1997 and compared it with the state's general Hispanic

population.

It found that out of more than 140,000 farmworkers, 1,001 had been diagnosed

with cancer from 1973 into 1997, and that there were 59 percent more reports

of leukemia and 69 percent more reports of stomach cancers than there were in

California's general Hispanic population.

The study found fewer incidents of breast and colon cancer among the

farmworkers than there were in the state's general Hispanic population, but

did not offer an explanation for the finding.

Mills said the study's results show the lack of health care and education

available to the farmworkers.

The farmworkers were diagnosed at a later stage than most of the state's

Latinos, according to the study. Many cancers, such as uterine cancer, are

more treatable with early detection, Mills said.

, 66, who spent 40 years spraying chemicals on vineyards and

citrus orchards in the Imperial Valley, blames the pesticides for his

leukemia.

Employers provided workers with gloves and masks, but said it was

often too hot to wear them. Temperatures often rise above 100 degrees where

he worked near Palm Springs.

Krauter noted that rates of pesticide injuries and illness have declined in

the past 20 years. In 2000, the state Department of Pesticide Regulation

recorded 893 incidents, down 1,201 from 1999, according to a recent report.

On the Net:

United Farm Workers: http://www.ufw.org

California Cancer Registry: http://www.ccrcal.org

California Farm Bureau Federation: http://www.cfbf.com

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