PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Mily Treviño-Sauceda, 951-545-1917, alianza@campesinasunite.org
Marisol Saucedo, 786-848-8246, marisol@campesinasunite.org
For Immediate Release
Alianza Nacional de Campesinas Launches Second National Pesticide Awareness Campaign
From January 15 through February 15th, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Inc. (National Farmworker Women’s Alliance) is embarking on an art focused public awareness campaign to bring attention to the issue of pesticide exposure in farmworker communities. Following the successful advocacy campaign to improve the Worker Protection Standard (WPS), Alianza Nacional will join Líderes Campesinas of California in the “Los Morralitos” campaign to raise awareness about pesticide exposure through the design and exhibition of small canvas satchels (morralitos) that represent bags farmworkers use to carry produce picked in the fields.
An estimated 1.1 billion pounds of pesticides and herbicides are sprayed on crops each year in the United States, and thousands of farmworkers experience the effects of acute pesticide poisoning, including headaches, nausea, shortness of breath and seizures. Exposure to pesticides like Roundup, Chlorpyrifos and Paraquat can lead to chronic health problems such as cancer, infertility, and neurological disorders. Farmworkers are usually unaware of the pesticides to which they are constantly exposed, the related health effects, or the laws meant to protect them. Pesticide exposure causes farmworkers to suffer more chemical-related injuries and illnesses than any other workforce in the nation.
Alianza Nacional’s member and allied organizations will coordinate over 80 exhibits of Los Morralitos in communities across the US and Mexico in support of the millions of men, women and children who labor in hazardous conditions in agricultural fields every day. Farmworkers, their families and community members across the country will decorate and exhibit satchels to express concern about pesticide exposure, share safety and health messages and demonstrate the impact of pesticides on agricultural communities.
For additional resources on this campaign, visit our Morralitos Campaign webpage and refer to our pesticides fact sheet for Paraquat, Chlopyrifos and Roundup.
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