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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Farm Workers in DC Demanding Protections from Pesticides

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Monday, July 15, 2013   

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Farm workers from across the nation, including Minnesota, are meeting with members of Congress today and Tuesday, asking for stronger protections for from hazardous pesticides.

According to Ernesto Velez, executive director of Centro Campesino of Owatonna, the field workers face the greatest threat from these chemicals, and there are 10,000 to 20,000 cases of acute pesticide poisoning each year across the country.

"There are definitely a lot of cases from different places where people have been directly effected, either illnesses or reactions, or in some of the worst cases there have been genetic changes, changes in fetuses and babies," he specified. "So, it's something that is definitely very important and very critical that we can improve."

Short-term effects of pesticide exposures can include blisters, nausea, headaches, and respiratory problems, while cumulative long-term exposures can increase the risk of serious chronic health problems such as cancer and neurological impairments.

In addition to the safety of the farm workers and their families, Velez said, all Americans have a stake in greater protections from pesticides, since these workers are the backbone of the U.S. agricultural economy.

"Those workers are providing basically the food for the entire country," he declared. "They are the ones who are putting their backs to the sun and getting into the field so that all of us can have fresh groceries, whether at the table or whether at the store."

More than 5 billion pounds of pesticides are applied to crops annually in the United States, and in Minnesota the figure is nearly 35 million pounds a year.

It's been more than 20 years since the Environmental Protection Agency updated or revised its agricultural worker safety standards for pesticide use.

More information is at bit.ly/12JgZW1.




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