Exposure in the Fields - Farmworkers in California’s Salinas Valley work with pesticides tied to illnesses, including some cancers.
Written by Brianna Abbot and Zaydee Sanchez. Photography by Zaydee Sanchez. For The Wall Street WRITTEN BY BRIANNA ABBOTT AND ZAYDEE SANCHEZ. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ZAYDEE SANCHEZ. FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. NOV. 2023.
When Agustin Espinoza Jaramillo shuffles to the doctor who treats his prostate cancer, he says he thinks about the three decades he spent applying pesticides to the fields that surround this farming town. Jaramillo, 72 years old, long knew some pest-killing chemicals have been linked to health problems including cancer. Even so, his own diagnosis came as a surprise.
“I can’t say that I fully understood everything I was applying,” Jaramillo said.
Farmworkers and families in Greenfield believe cancer cases in their community were caused by pesticide used in nearby fields. Establishing whether pesticide or another environmental exposure caused cancer in a particular person is difficult. Many factors influence whether someone develops cancer, and the interplay among those forces isn’t fully understood. Some research shows pesticides can harm workers and people who live near fields where the chemicals are applied. Exposure to some pesticides has been linked to respiratory problems, neurological disorders and some cancers, said Cynthia Curl, director of the Agricultural Health Lab at Boise State University, who has published studies on the topic.
“The tricky part is saying any one person’s cancer was due to pesticide exposure,” she said.
Greenfield, a town of 19,000, sits in the Salinas Valley, where the cultivation of vegetables, wine grapes and strawberries drives the economy. The town’s middle and high schools and many homes are across the street from fields where growers apply some of the nine million pounds of pesticides used in the surrounding Monterey County each year. Some research has connected specific agricultural pesticides to increased risks of cancers including prostate, brain and blood cancers. Farmers and workers who apply pesticides to fields are diagnosed with those cancers at higher-than-average rates, some studies suggest. Other studies have presented mixed results. The duration and nature of an exposure affect the risk pesticides pose, researchers said.
Jaramillo, who migrated from Mexico to the U.S. in 1971, learned about pesticide risks from the work of labor leader César Chávez. Jaramillo and his wife joined protests Chávez led against the insecticide DDT. The Environmental Protection Agency, which banned DDT in 1972, lists it as a probable carcinogen. Jaramillo applied pesticide in fields around Greenfield until 2008, when he switched to fixing tractors. After a two-month bout of fatigue and aches in 2019, Jaramillo visited his doctor and was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.
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