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The Rio Grande Valley, one of the most productive agricultural regions in the state, has become a hotbed for the spread of life-threatening Parkinson’s disease due to its use of dangerous pesticides.
A recent analysis by the United States Environmental Protection Agency found the strongest linked pesticide to Parkinson’s was paraquat, a weedkiller that has been banned or phased out in 74 countries, but not in the U.S.
The U.S., or at the very least Texas, needs to step up to protect not only the farmworkers who pick and process fruits and vegetables, but the people who live around these fields.
Over-spray from crop dusters can spread the deadly pesticide through the air to anyone within a 20-square-mile radius of its application. This leaves families who live in these areas to have to run for cover inside their homes to prevent the inhalation of the poison.
Farmworkers, on the other hand, wake up day in and day out to wade into these fields to harvest melons and citrus by hand. To provide money for their families and produce for Texans’ tables, they are coming into direct contact with paraquat through their lungs and skin.
These farmworkers need better protection — for instance, by using less harmful pesticides in the fields they work.
Paraquat, despite its ban in other nations, is very common in the U.S. because of its effectiveness in killing a variety of weeds. But the horrific reality of the situation is that the downstream effects of paraquat use are seen in the vast increase of Parkinson’s cases.
Recognized as the fastest-growing neurological disorder in the world, Parkinson’s cases have doubled between 2015 and 2021, and are expected to reach 25 million by 2050.
These are also worldwide figures but one study found the rates in Texas are increasing faster than in the rest of the world. Some of the increases are accounted for by many populations growing older, but the effects that can be mitigated, should be. Most importantly, because there is no cure for Parkinson’s.
Gradually, through the disease’s progression, people experience tremors, stiffness, unsteadiness, depression and incontinence. That is no way to live, and it is not something that farmworkers should have to endure for picking the crops that feed the state, the nation and the world.
In the 1920s, the world began adding lead to gasoline as an “antiknock agent,” which improved engine efficiency. Then in 1969, clinical trials showed the detrimental effects of leaded gasoline for the first time.With evidence from the first trials and added studies conducted in the years that followed, the world began to see the effects of this motor-enhancing fuel — lead poisoning and a drop in IQ scores among children.
The U.S. introduced restrictions on its use in 1983, but it was not until 1996 that leaded gasoline was completely banned nationwide. It took seven decades for the government to step up and put people over efficiency, even with the evidence, so they must step in now.
The data on paraquat is in, and it is not good. A body-crippling disease in exchange for cheaper, more efficient farming methods.
Truthfully, you cannot blame the farmers. They are operating on razor-thin margins as it is and any way to get a leg up rather than lose the land, house and family is good for the soul. But the state needs to recognize paraquat’s detrimental effects and step in.
Much like leaded gasoline, the downstream effects do not outweigh the potential upsides, and, in all honesty, this pesticide is much worse than the gasoline.
A few IQ points in the bucket for a smoother-running Chevy pickup is nothing compared to the body-breaking disease that is Parkinson’s.
One study found the link between Parkinson’s disease and farmworkers is nearly eliminated with the use of proper personal protective equipment. This study does not account for the airborne factor of spraying pesticides, nor does it account for the conditions these laborers operate under.
In 105-degree heat with the sun beating down, almost no one wants to wear gloves. If they do, they surely are not the protective gloves associated with the study, which was conducted in Iowa, not Texas.
Farmworkers go out into the field in the lightest layers they can, often with a wide brimmed hat, an outer shirt, an undershirt and sometimes a face covering. This is not because of fear of pesticides, but the sun.
So, expecting them to wear gloves that are sealed enough to prevent paraquat from reaching their skin is just ignorance of the profession.
Go out in the field, dust blowing into the eyes, sweat crawling from every pore of the body while waiting for the cropdusters to fly overhead. Go out and look at the back-breaking labor that these farmworkers do.
Their work feeds the nation, it puts lettuce, melons, citrus and other produce on the table. It keeps people from having to start their own backyard gardens or spend a fortune on fruits and vegetables at the store. These laborers should be protected as much as anyone else.
Their job is hard enough. They do not need the added consequences of life-altering diseases to be the fruit of their labor. Texas needs to do a better job protecting its farmworkers, and a good start is to ban paraquat use in the state.
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