1988_05 The Daily Collegian May 1988

              ______  '
V
 Monday, May 2,1988 Page 3
Pesticide killing
farmworkers
Racial Tension
Black Issues in Higher Education.
By Dennis Schatzman
Dartmouth, -Univ. of Massachusetts,
UMass-Amherst, Smith, Mount Hol-
yoke. Brown, Wellesley, Tufts, Yale...all
institutions of higher learning in New
England. But they have somehting more
dubious in common. All have experienced
ugly racial incidents among students on
campus within the last 18 months.
Nationwide, racism is again rearing its
ugly head on campuses with greater freq¬
uency in recent months. It seems ironic,
however, that many institutions, faced
with this dilemma, are based in the New
England states, the birthplace of "liberty,"
the  Consiitution   and   the   Abolitoinist
movement. Consider these blights:
*a Black female was taunted as "dark
meat" by Dartmouth football players.
•White UMas-Amherst students, fol¬
lowing the World Series finale, attacked
a small group of^Btack Mets fans on
campus, injuring several.
*A Jewish Tufts University student
was allegedly  beaten  by  fellow  whites
after writing a newspaper article denoun¬
cing racism.
•At Smith College, racial slurs were
spray-painted on the steps of the
Minority Cultural Center.
See Tension p. 7
Minority Journalism Workshop
FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
July 18 - Aug. 5
AT THE FRESNO BEE
HOW TO APPLY: Application forms are available irorn
your journalism adviser, the CCNMA and The Bee {see
below). Completed applications must be returned by
May 16 to CCNMA at the address below.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Write to Minority
Journalism Workshop, CCNMA Fresno, P.O. Box 12384
Fresno, CA 93777.
Questions can be directed to Dr. Harry Kennedy, the
workshop director, at 453-1644 evenings; to Tom
Uribes of CCNMA, workshop co-director, at 266-1391
or 275-0717; or to Donald Slinkard, Fresno Bee
managing editor, at 441-6442.
FRONTLINE
By Morris Wright
Farm Workers' unions have been voices
crying in the wilderness against exposure
of field workers to pesticides that
debilitate and kill. The United Farm
Workers (UFW) publish monthly horror
stories of deformed children, sickness and
death from pesticides.
The rest of us are told to wash our
fruits and vegetables, but 2.3 million
farm workers have' to touch them,
unwashed, all day long, and breathe the
dust and fumes.
UFW president Cesar Chavez, writing
in the union's publication Food and
Justice, has estimated that 300,000 pesti¬
cide poisonings occur each year, and has
presented many case histories, including
that of a boy born with no arms or legs
to parents who work in the fields. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
has not commented on Chavez' state¬
ments except to admit that many cases of
pesticide poisoning go unreported.
There are federal rules and some state
laws concerning protective clothing and
time intervals after spraying before
workers can be required to enter the fields,
but they are poorly enforced and often
ignored.
EPA, responding to lobbying by farm
unions, the Migrant Legal Assistance
Project (MLAP) and California Rural
Legal Assistance, is preparing to revise
its rules. But a draft proposal of revisions
is "weak in almost every area," according
to Shelly Davis, a MLAP lawyer.
However, she added, "Anything woulfl be
some improvement"
This glacial process has been dragging
on since 1985, when EPA assembled
representatives of unions, employers and
other concerned groups in an effort to get
agreement in advance on its proposals. In
1986 the labor representatives walked out
in protest against EPA's bias in favor of
employers.
Now, representatives of UFW, the
Farm Labor Organizing Committee
(FLOC) and MLAP are meeting and
traveling together to agricultural areas,
preparing a critique of EPA's proposals.
EPA DRAFT PROPOSAL
The current EPA proposal does contain
some provisions that are better than what
now exists. Among other things, the 237-
page EPA proposal would:
♦Extend coverage to 300,000 workers
in nurseries and green houses, and to
forestry workers and those employed by
labor contractors;
'Require monitoring of blood of those
exposed to pesticides for the longest
periods to check for an enzyme attacked
by the most toxic substances. The
enzyme is necessary for proper
funciioning of the nervous system. This
would not be required for 75% of field
workers, who are exposed for "only"
three weeks a year. Many of the latter
groups, as well as the former, are afflicted
by nervous disorders.
•Require wailing periods of 24 to 48
hours after application of pesticides before
workers could be sent into the fields.
They could be required to enter sooner if
protective clothing were provided.
Such laws are on the books in some
slates, but Frontline has been told by
workers in the Salinas, California area
[hat they had been threatened with firing
if they refused to enter a field that was
posted. At best, this protection is
uncertain; nobody knows what period of
time, if any, guarantees safety.
-"anything
would be an
improvement'
EPA has further weakened this degree
of protection by proposing in its new
document that wiming placards at field
entrances no longer display the familiar
skull and crossbones symbol but instead
show an upraised hand and stem face.
Dr. Marian Moses, representing UFW,
told Frontline that she is particularly
upset about this last change. This
dilution of the message, Moses said, is a
typical case of EPA deference to
employers. "The industry wants to do
what it bloody well wants to do," she
added.
This was Substantiated when Mark
Maslyn, a representative of the American
Farm Bureau Federation, an employer
group, said his organization was pleased
that "We've been somewhat successful" in
persuading EPA to follow its recom¬
mendations.
REVIEW PROCESS
The new proposals will be reviewed by
other federal agencies before they are
presented to Congress. This will take four
to six months; the new regulations are
not expected to be ready until 1989.
This means that during the second half
of 1988 EPA's proposed new regualtions
will be the subject of hearings and votes
in Congress. Testimony and pressure is
bieng organized by farm unions and legal
support organizations, but they are
calling for support from others as well.
Demands are not only to strengthen the
proposals and fight off employer attempts
to weaken them further, but also to put
teeth into regulations-sanctions with
criminal liability for employers who
violate them.
"Education and Community Success"
a panel discussion featuring:
Juan Arambula, Maria Escobar, and Jose Villarreal
Thursday, May 5
7:00 p.m., S.C.U.
sponsored by semana de la Raza