A real heat shield for farmworkers (higher #s than any other occupational group except firefighters)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-marsh2-2008aug02,0,5467266.story

By Michael I. Marsh and Dorothy A. Johnson
August 2, 2008
Government spreadsheets tell their stories:

"Found dead under grapevine; had been missing for approximately 15 hours."

"Found dead in a melon field."

"Died after driving all day on a tractor in 111 degrees F."

Dozens of farmworkers have died from heatstroke in the last decade in California. No one knows exactly how many because sometimes their deaths are not recorded as heat-related or not recorded at all. Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez is one whose story we do know.

Summer hadn't officially begun when Vasquez collapsed May 14 while pruning grapevines near Stockton. She died from heat illness two days later. The 17-year-old's core body temperature had exceeded 108 degrees Fahrenheit after working 9 1/2 hours in 95-degree heat with only limited access to drinking water and no shade.

Two years earlier, the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health had cited Vasquez's employer, Merced Farm Labor, for violations including not having adequate drinking water. But Cal/OSHA never followed up on the citation, and the employer never corrected the situation. Last week, the state fined the company a record $262,700 for violating workplace safety requirements in the Vasquez case.

Workers' compensation statistics show that farmworkers suffer from heat illness in higher numbers than any other occupational group except firefighters. But unlike farmworkers, few firefighters die of heatstroke. Perhaps it's the greater access to drinking water and rest breaks that save the lives of firefighters. Perhaps it's better emergency preparedness and access to first aid. Or maybe it has to do with the value that society places on the lives of people who fight fires as opposed to the lives of those who harvest the nation's food.

One thing is certain: Vasquez did not have to die.

FULL story at link.

[jwirr]

1. When I was little and temps were reasonable the farmers in Iowa

were always aware of possible heat stroke. God alone knows now what it is like to work in 106+ degrees. It also makes me think about our soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan at 145+ degrees and forced to wear their gear.