FARM SCENE: Heat presents health danger to California field workers; one d

[Judi Lynn]

Wednesday August 18, 2004

FARM SCENE: Heat presents health danger to California field workers; one dies picking grapes

By JULIANA BARBASSA
Associated Press Writer

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- A coroner's investigation has confirmed that a field worker died of heat stroke, a health threat that has killed at least eight farmworkers in California in recent years and has hospitalized dozens more.
The heat can turn deadly with little warning during the grape harvest, when temperatures in California's Central Valley hover near 100 degrees and grape growers have a short window to pick the 6.7 million tons of grapes the state produces each year.

California grows 91 percent of the country's grapes, and workers labor under that pressure. They're often paid by piece rate, which pushes them to work fast, and sometimes to keep working despite dizziness and nausea -- heat stroke's early warning signs.

The state's Occupational Health and Safety program keeps records of heat-related deaths in the country's most productive fields -- but only in years in which there are three or more deaths, to protect the identity of the employer. In 2002, the last year for which information was available, three workers died because of the heat, their records show. In 1998, four workers died.

In 1992, the last year for which Cal-OSHA provided statistics, 41 agricultural workers were hospitalized for heatstroke. Cal-OSHA only counts hospital stays of more than 24 hours, in which the patient was held for more than just observation.
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http://wvgazette.com/section/APNews/News/ap0412n