Update: Victory
for Migrant Housing Health & Safety!
Action needed now to protect farmworkers
from pesticides
Farmworkers
- many of whom migrate from place to place following
the harvest - provide the backbone of North Carolina's
agricultural labor force. In remote rural areas,
farmworkers and their families face many threats
to their health and safety, including poor housing
conditions and high exposure to pesticides, both
on the job and at home.
Several bills before the NC legislature
this year seek to address some of these issues.
They would require basic standards for decency
and safety in employer-provided housing for farmworkers,
close loopholes in the NC Pesticide Law that endanger
workers and their families, and provide two more
inspectors for the Department of Labor to improve
enforcement of housing standards.
Your calls and emails helped to improve
housing conditions for migrant farmworkers! S1466,
Migrant Housing Health & Safety, passed the
NC House and Senate on July 19th and has been sent
to the Governor for his signature.
Action is still
needed to better protect farmworkers from pesticides. |
NC farmworker family. Photo
courtesy of Student
Action with Farmworkers.
Farmworkers
and their families deserve safe, humane living
conditions.
Victory! S1466,
Migrant Housing Health & Safety, passed the NC
House and Senate on July 19th and has been sent to
the Governor for his signature.
Your calls and
emails helped to improve housing conditions for
migrant farmworkers - Congratulations!
Take Action
Today: Your action is now needed to support H1818,
the Agricultural Family Protection Act.
Support our
work. Donate
today! |
Background information
Current minimum standards for migrant housing
in NC - one shower head per 10 workers, or one clothes
washing tub per 30 workers - make it extremely difficult
for farmworkers to take basic precautions to prevent prolonged
exposure to pesticides, such as showering immediately after
work, or washing work clothes separately from family clothes.
The current standards don't guarantee workers mattresses
on their beds, or access to a phone in case of an emergency.
To make matters even worse, the Department
of Labor does not have adequate manpower to enforce even
these meager standards; less than half of employer-provided
migrant housing in the state is inspected each year. All
too often, this means that workers are stuck in overcrowded,
unsanitary housing - in many cases together with their
families and young children.
>>Please take a moment to thank
your NC Senator or Representative for her or his support
for S
1466, Migrant Housing Health & Safety, which
would bring NC one step closer to safe, humane living
conditions for the people who grow our food and their
families. Find
contact information for your representatives.
>>Learn more about proposals
to address Farmworkers and Pesticides
in NC, and The
Sorry State of Migrant Housing in NC, and stay
tuned for updates from Toxic Free NC on these issues
throughout the 2007-2008 Legislative Session.
Toxic Free NC Action
Alerts are a publication of
Toxic Free North Carolina
206 New Bern Place, Raleigh, NC 27601, (919) 833-5333,
1-877-NO-SPRAY
http://www.toxicfreenc.org
Mission: Toxic Free NC advocates
for alternatives to toxic pesticides in North Carolina
by empowering people to make sound decisions about their
health and environment.
To get monthly action alerts
in your email, or to change your subscription information,
go to http://www.toxicfreenc.org/involved/subscribe.html.
