SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

May 13, 2009

Hurricanes pose special danger to Florida farm areas: blown pesticides, other toxic chemicals

South Florida's farming communities, such as Belle Glade, Homestead and Immokalee, face a hidden danger from hurricanes that can last long after the storm has passed: pesticides or other chemicals set loose by the storm.

"All those places are at risk," Roberta Perry, of the National Farm Workers Ministry, said during a workshop Tuesday at the Governor's Hurricane Conference at the Broward County Convention Center. "If it's a flood, those pesticides in the fields themselves, the runoff, can get very dangerous."

Farm workers' children may get sick playing in the contaminated mud of a chemical-laden field after a hurricane, Perry said. Because of a lack of knowledge, she said, doctors often misdiagnose the rashes, headaches and other chronic ailments brought on by the chemicals.

The danger comes from stored chemicals. Hurricane floodwaters can tip over pesticide containers in fields or breach storage tanks full of fertilizer.

"In case of a hurricane, nobody's going to be thinking about those pesticide containers," said Lariza Garzon, another social worker with the farmworker ministry.

Contaminated water from the chemicals can collect in puddles or mud, and the effects on humans can be grim. Liver disease, cancer, birth defects or miscarriages are some of the ailments caused by farm chemicals.

Chemicals from fields may be dispersed over long distances by a hurricane's winds. Airborne, they can lead to asthma and emphysema.

"The effects are long-term, uncommon and hard to track," Perry said. "It's very difficult to get treatment for them, especially in rural communities."

Poisoned air or water can also kill off fish, animals and vegetation.

Testing water and soil after a storm takes time and money, so it's important for emergency workers to plan ahead, Perry said.

They should map out where chemicals are stored and where the workers live. Police and fire officials should increase comfort levels by meeting regularly with farmworkers, who in many cases are illegal immigrants and fearful of authority.

Emergency workers also need to plan for food distribution after a storm and to arrange for announcements on Spanish-language radio warning workers of dangerous chemicals. "It's really important to keep communications open," Garzon said.

Garzon noted that not every farm is a caldron of hazardous chemicals waiting to be unleashed by a hurricane. "Even though it's not in every single farm," she said, "it's something you have to account for."