BRADENTON HERALD August 10, 2005
Group: Workers need clothes washed
MANATEE - Many farmworkers in Manatee County don't wash their clothes immediately after working in pesticide-laden fields, which poses a danger to their health and their families' health, according to a farmworker advocacy group. The Latino Community Network of Manatee County wants to place washing machines in remote areas that lack laundromats, so farmworkers can wash their clothes more often. "I told one farmworker I met that he needed to wash his clothes before holding his baby," Luz Corcuera, president of the Latino Community Network of Manatee County, said Tuesday. "He didn't understand what I meant. That idea was totally foreign to him." The Latino Community Network of Manatee County is working with Florida West Coast Resource Conservation and Development, which has secured a $10,000 grant to buy the washers, Corcuera said. Although a site for the first washing facility has not been selected, washers may be installed in as soon as three months, Corcuera said. "We are in the initial stages of deciding where, when and how to implement this pilot project," Corcuera said. The idea for the project came from the Farmworkers of Manatee County Needs Assessment published in January by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Corcuera said. "The Latino Community Network decided to focus on the health education part of the needs assessment," Corcuera said. Martha Ramirez, who works as a health promoter for Healthy Start Coalition of Manatee County, said farmworkers, who often do not own cars, frequently wait until a day off to travel with others to a laundromat to wash their clothes. But if they had a laundromat near where they live and were educated on the importance of cleaning, it could be a health-saving measure, Ramirez said. "They put off going to a laundromat until the weekend because it is far," Ramirez said. "But they should do it everyday because pesticides can accumulate and spread to their living quarters. Also, they must learn not to mix their work clothes with their dress clothes." Terry Longpre, property manager for Taylor & Fulton Farms of Palmetto, said some farmworkers don't understand the need to wash their clothes directly after working in the field. "Even though we try to control it, you might get up against a spray rig that has a jug or bottle on it and you really got to wash your clothes," Longpre said. "If I go to fields, I don't wear those clothes again. But if we try to teach the workers why, they look at us like we are nuts. Of course, the other side might be that they may not have another shirt to wear." Corcuera said the Latino Community Network would like to publish a pamphlet that explaining the need to for workers wash clothes. Farmworkers living in Taylor & Fulton Farm housing have charged other farmworkers for washing their clothes, Longpre said. "If we have 10 apartments in a complex and four with washers, at least one or two will have turned our places into commercial laundromats," Longpre said. "But it's a good health practice, and we consider it a cost of doing business." Corcuera envisions farmworkers as stakeholders in the project. "This should not be a service, but a project that would bring the farmworkers to the table and give them the chance to be involved in the implementation and maintenance of the laundry," Corcuera said. The washers near farmworker housing will take education and supervision, Longpre said. "Is it feasible? Yes. You would want them in inaccessible areas, not in Palmetto where we have five or six laundromats," Longpre said.
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