FRESNO BEE

August 18, 2006

Workers Ill After Chemical Exposure

About 50 Farm Laborers Are Exposed to Sulfuric Acid South of Mendota.

By Pablo Lopez, The Fresno Bee

About 50 farmworkers were exposed Thursday to sulfuric acid being sprayed on a nearby dirt field south of Mendota -- an incident that left the farmworkers scared, itchy and nauseated and the vineyard owner upset.

"This [incident] was a total disregard for the health of people," owner Robert Peterson said.

The incident illustrates an anomaly in agriculture: Because sulfuric acid is used as a fertilizer and not a pesticide, the county agricultural commissioner does not regulate how the chemical is applied, nor does the applicator have to obtain a permit for its use.

The sulfuric acid was being sprayed as a fertilizer in a dirt field about 75 feet from where the workers were picking grapes near Kamm Avenue and Highway 33, Peterson said. The workers were downwind and the winds were brisk when workers began falling ill just before noon.

"He should have known better," Peterson said of the sprayer.

By the time Fresno County officials and ambulances arrived, the farmworkers had scattered to places unknown, leaving harvested grapes on the vineyard ground.

Lupe Morales said she was packing table grapes when she and the other workers started having sore, dry throats and itchy red eyes. Morales said her heart also started beating faster.

"We didn't know what it was until someone said they were spraying chemicals in the field next to us," she said. "The smell that we got was like the spray you use on roaches."

Morales said workers fled after a sheriff's deputy told everyone to leave the field.

"People got scared. They just left their fruit boxes and knives and they just left," Morales said. "They didn't know what to do, so they got in their cars and left.”

Morales said she didn't go to a doctor because she felt better after leaving the vineyard. It was not known whether any farmworkers sought medical treatment.

Alex Zendejas, who works for Verdegaal Brothers Inc. of Hanford, said he told the workers he was spraying the field. He also said the chemical did not affect him.

"It wasn't that bad," Zendejas said. "It never came in direct contact with anyone."

Jerry Prieto Jr., Fresno County agriculture commissioner, said his office will investigate the incident. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation also was ready to assist in the investigation if needed, said spokesman Glenn Brank.

Sulfuric acid can irritate the skin and respiratory system and cause nausea, said Daniel Betancur, a county environmental health investigator dispatched to the vineyard.

"It's just like the pool chemical if you get a whiff," Betancur told Peterson and others at the vineyard.

The county does not track illnesses related to fertilizer application, but it does track pesticide cases. Despite the millions of pounds of pesticides used in Fresno County, Prieto said, the amount of worker illnesses is relatively small.

This year, the county has recorded one case of pesticide illness, a worker who was hospitalized after exposure to sulfur.

Last year, the county investigated two pesticide illness cases, one involving five workers in a field just south of Fresno.

Prieto said that sulfuric acid is commonly used to adjust the pH level in soils prior to planting.

Zendejas was using a ground rig to apply the chemical in a field that will grow blueberries. The ranch's owner, Janis Burford, could not be reached for comment, but George Verdegaal, owner of the fertilizer company, questioned the farmworkers' story.

"This happens sometimes when workers see an applicator in the field and the wind brings it close to them. They start acting like they are sick," Verdegaal said. "But by the time they got out of the field, the workers went home. If they were sick, how come they didn't go the hospital?"

Verdegaal said his company has been in business since the early 1970s and operates its equipment safely.

"We are concerned," he said. "But the workers were a quarter of a mile away. Nothing should be wrong with them."

The Verdegaal company counts sulfuric acid fertilizers as one of its specialties, according to its Web site. It states that sulfuric acid can, among other things, lower the soil pH, improve water penetration and increase the availability of nutrients.

The company Web site also says Verdegaal Brothers won a 2004 award from the Kings County Economic Development Corporation for its contribution to the economy.

But the company was fined $23,000 after an employee had a fingertip cut off April 10 when he got it stuck between a pulley and a belt on a pump he had been examining, said Dean Fryer, spokesman for the state Department of Industrial Relations. The fines, which the company did not appeal, stemmed from two citations: one for $18,000 for not having properly guarded equipment and $5,000 for not reporting the accident, Fryer said.