PALM BEACH POST

October 13, 2005

State fines Ag-Mart $111,200 for pesticide violations

By Christine Evans, Christine Stapleton, John Lantigua

Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

Ag-Mart Produce, the tomato grower at the center of a sprawling, two-state investigation into pesticides and birth defects, was fined a record $111,200 by Florida agriculture officials on Wednesday in a complaint that cites 88 counts of pesticide violations on two company farms.

The fine is believed to be the largest of its kind ever imposed by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the department said.

It was announced the same day that health officials in Collier County released a much-anticipated, related report on the possible cause of birth defects suffered by three babies born to Ag-Mart fieldworkers. The report establishes no link between pesticides and the babies' deformities.

The Agriculture Department said Ag-Mart repeatedly violated strict harvesting and field reentry rules designed to keep workers safe.

"Pesticide labels state how soon after a pesticide application a crop can be harvested, as well as how soon it is safe for workers to enter a field," the department said in a statement. "Ag-Mart is accused of harvesting crops anywhere from one day to five days after pesticide applications despite a seven-day waiting period indicated on the label."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approves pesticides, but only if label instructions are followed exactly.

"Although the investigation found evidence of harvesting before the waiting period expired, no illegal pesticide residues" were found on crops during routine samplings from the farms in question, the statement added.

The health report drew no definitive conclusions but said it was "unlikely" the birth defects of three infants born to farmworker couples from Dec. 17 through Feb. 6 were connected to pesticide exposures in Florida. Health officials said a similar investigation is under way in North Carolina, where the parents also worked for Ag-Mart.

In addition, North Carolina agriculture officials are expected to release a separate list of violations against the company as early as today.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Ag-Mart spokeswoman Leslie Gwinn said: "The Collier County report... has found that the tragic birth defects of three children born to employees of our Company were very unlikely to have been caused by the occupational exposure to pesticides while working at our farms. However, we will continue to be open to investigators and are committed to finding any way we can determine how these birth defects occurred."

Gwinn said late Wednesday that Ag-Mart had not had a chance to review the agriculture department violations. She said the company might contest them "to the extent that it determines... the asserted violations are erroneous or unjustified."

The dual releases by state agriculture and health authorities wrapped up a seven-month investigation into Ag-Mart's pesticide practices as well as a complicated scientific inquiry into whether a few pesticides found in some studies to be associated with birth defects might have played a role in the babies' conditions.

The investigation began after an outreach worker in Immokalee, where most of the parents worked, learned of the deformed babies in February. The worker brought the cases to the attention of The Palm Beach Post.

The cases were complicated by the fact that all of the parents traveled to various Ag-Mart fields in the eastern United States and stayed in temporary housing.

"Our hearts go out to these folks," said Joan Colfer, director of the Collier County Health Department.

In failing to find a link between the birth defects and the pesticides, her department's report cited, among other factors, an "absence of symptoms of exposure" in the mothers' health histories, as well as the varied nature of the babies' deformities.

Cause, effect hard to prove

Medical experts say such links between specific birth defects and pesticide use are almost impossible to prove.

Charles Williams, a University of Florida genetics expert who consulted on the case, said that it was "difficult to rule out" pesticide exposure but that the different deformities led him to conclude that exposure was "quite unlikely to be the cause of the defects."

Colfer said the Florida report, while not linking the birth defects to pesticide exposure, isolates critical days in two of the women's gestational periods when they were asked to enter fields too soon after pesticides had been applied. One woman worked 29 days in Florida fields during her critical gestational period, and on 11 of those days, "the pesticides were not being used appropriately," Colfer said.

A second woman worked eight days during her critical gestational period, and pesticides were misused on five of those.

"What's upsetting to me is they were allowed to work in the field when people were not following the (reentry) label instructions on the pesticides," Colfer said.

The report does not name the women, but the cases have been widely reported. All three women — Francisca Herrera, mother of Carlitos, born without arms and legs; Maria Meza, mother of Violeta, who died of multiple deformities; and Sostenes Salazar, whose son Jesus has a malformed jaw — have spoken at length to The Post, as have their extended families.

The Department of Agriculture and its commissioner, Charles Bronson, said in the statement that the most serious violations concern "restricted entry" intervals intended to protect workers. Most of the violations occurred at Ag-Mart's farm in Immokalee, where investigators found 66 violations and assessed $83,600 in fines.

Repeatedly from March through June 2004, the three women reentered fields in Immokalee or Jennings too soon after the insecticide Monitor was applied. Monitor is one of five pesticides with suspected links to birth defects that the company recently announced it has stopped using.

Two of the women were in the first trimester of their pregnancies. The third woman did not reenter the fields before they were safe, according to agriculture reports.

Monitor should not be applied within seven days of harvest. State investigators found that Ag-Mart violated that requirement on 21 days from March through May 2004.

In Jennings, investigators found 22 violations and fined the company $27,600. The most common violations involved harvesting tomatoes too soon after pesticides were applied and allowing workers back into the fields after pesticide applications.

Meza, one month pregnant at the time, reentered fields sprayed with Monitor before the 48-hour safety waiting period on four days in June 2004, the report said.

Four Ag-Mart employees were named in the report: Warrick Birdwell, Charles Lambert, Justin Oelmann and Josh Cantu. None responded to phone calls for comment.

Company cited before

Ag-Mart has been cited for pesticide violations in four previous cases, including one at the Immokalee farm. They included failing to post notices of when it was safe to reenter a field, using unqualified trainers, applying a pesticide in too strong a mixture, failing to keep records and allowing a worker to apply a pesticide without proper protective clothing. The firm received warning letters but no fines. Greg Schell, an attorney for the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, which has worked on pesticides cases, called the fine "precedent setting."

"If it sticks, it does send a message," he said. "I think it's very encouraging."

Shelley Davis of the Farmworker Justice Fund in Washington was less optimistic. She called the health department investigation "a rush to judgment" and said it did not look into the possible exposure of the fathers.

"At the very least, workers exposed on the job get it on their hands and their clothes and they come home and they give their wife a hug and now she has pesticides on her," Davis said. "Where are the dads in all of this?"

Deb Millsap, spokeswoman for the Collier health department, said: "We did look at the dads as well. But the focus was on the gestational period" of the mothers.

Andrew Yaffa, an attorney representing Carlitos Candelario Herrera, the baby born without arms and legs, applauded the penalties but said he was skeptical about the health report.

"Don't you think it's strange that they find 88 violations of the laws and fine the company $111,000 and say there is no connection to those children?" he said. "Something isn't right."

Colfer said her department asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency to conduct more sophisticated tests. "The EPA is interested," she said.

In addition, her department listed four key recommendations, including better training on pesticide-related illnesses for health practitioners in Collier County, where many field laborers work.

The department also wants better monitoring of birth defects in Collier and Lee counties and said the Florida health and agriculture departments should work more closely to investigate violations and illness and injury reports.

From births to policy change

Dec. 17, 2004: Carlitos Candelario Herrera is born without arms or legs.

Feb. 4: Jesus Navarrete is born with Pierre Robin syndrome, characterized by an underdeveloped lower jaw and swallowing problems.

Feb. 6: Maria Meza gives birth to a child with a missing nose, one ear and no visible sexual organs. She at first names the child Jorge but later is told the child is a girl and renames her Violeta. Violeta dies three days later.

Late February: The Palm Beach Post is notified by an outreach worker for Guadalupe Social Services in Immokalee that the parents of the three children all worked for Ag-Mart Produce Inc., picking tomatoes in Immokalee and in other locales operated by the company.

March 13: The Post publishes its first story about the three children and about serious problems in the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services monitoring of pesticide use and enforcement of federal pesticide laws. The company promises to conduct its own probe.

March 13: Carlitos Candelario is baptized at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Immokalee.

March 15: Collier County begins investigating the cases of the three children born with birth defects.

March 16: Guadalupe Social Services sets up a fund to help the three families.

March 28: State agricultural inspectors join local and state health investigators looking into Ag-Mart operations in Immokalee. That investigation later encompasses Ag-Mart operations in Jennings and in North Carolina.

Late March: Joseph M. Procacci, owner of Ag-Mart Produce, circulates a statement among its fieldworkers promising to investigate the birth defects. Don Long, president of Ag-Mart, meets with the parents of two of the affected children.

May: Ag-Mart implements a toll-free bilingual anonymous tip line for employees.

Late spring/early summer: Ag-Mart's farm manager in Immokalee leaves the company, and the pesticide manager, Justine Oelmann, resigns. The company and the farm manager decline to comment.

July: Paralegals and interns from the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project and the Florida Catholic Conference interview Ag-Mart fieldworkers in Jennings about possible pesticide exposure at the company's farms in Immokalee and Wimauma. Twenty-two percent of 78 workers surveyed say they had been sprayed directly with chemicals while working in Immokalee or Wimauma for Ag-Mart in May. Ag-Mart rejects the validity of the survey and claims there were no employees at the Wimauma farm that month.

Sept. 30: Ag-Mart announces it will voluntarily discontinue use of most pesticides that may be linked to birth defects.