WNCN-TV (Raleigh, North Carolina)

August 11, 2010

WAKE COUNTY, N.C. - Long stretches of heat can be deadly to farm workers.

Three agricultural workers in North Carolina died from heat stress in 2006.

None have died since then, according to the North Carolina Department of Labor. The department attributes it to extensive educational efforts, said Regina Cullen, Chief of the Agricultural Safety and Health Bureau at the Department of Labor.

"We do a heck of a lot of educating. And say, ‘this is the best way.' Nobody wants to have an accident. Nobody wants to have a fatality on their farm," Cullen said.

The department doesn't track heat illnesses. But the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs has received reports of symptoms of heat illnesses among farm workers this summer; and of workers without enough water, shade, or breaks.

"We have seen families that are sleeping under trailers to escape heat. We have seen slurred speech and slurred vision in a lot of the youth that are out there working in the fields long days," said Emily Drakage, the North Carolina Regional Coordinator for the Association's Children in the Fields Campaign.

You should call the Department of Labor if you are forced to work in dangerous conditions, Cullen said. Farmers can be cited for not providing enough water, for example.

But sometimes, Drakage said, workers put themselves in danger.

"Many times workers because they earn by piece rate, they tend to not take as many breaks as they should with the heat and in turn become sick."