Board will hear Ag-Mart laborers
Hearing under way in pesticide case
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Staff Writer
State officials will hear for the first time this week from people who
have worked in the fields for tomato grower Ag-Mart.
After three years of legal maneuvering, the state Pesticide Board
started a hearing Tuesday on charges that the Florida company, which
runs a large farm in Brunswick County, exposed its workers to toxic
pesticides. The hearing will continue today.
The board is expected to hear testimony from former Ag-Mart field worker
Francisca Herrera, who bore a son in December 2004 with no arms or legs.
In March, the company agreed to pay an undisclosed settlement to
Herrera, who claimed that pesticide exposure was the cause of her
child's birth defects. The company denies responsibility for the birth
defects.
The board will also hear from another former worker, Sostenes Salazar,
whose baby was born with a deformed jaw. Salazar, however, will testify
for Ag-Mart, contending she was never exposed to pesticides while
working alongside Herrera.
North Carolina officials began investigating Ag-Mart in April 2005 after
hearing of three deformed babies born to Ag-Mart workers within six
weeks -- including those of Herrera and Salazar.
In the fall of 2005, state pesticide officials charged Ag-Mart with 369
violations of state pesticide law, touching off the largest pesticide
prosecution in state history.
This week's hearing marks the first time that the mothers, or any
Ag-Mart field workers, will be heard in the case.
The state has based the case entirely on company work records that show
where field hands were picking crops, plus spray records that document
where pesticides were applied. When cross-referenced, the records often
placed workers in fields before they were safe to re-enter.
Ag-Mart says the work records simply aren't accurate and do not reflect
where employees worked.
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