Existe un gran problema en los campos de agricultura en el Estado de Florida. Sin embargo no se aprecia en toda su magnitud pues los afectados directamente son agricultores inmigrantes quienes no hablan Ingles. Ellos recogen nuestras fresas y tomates. Ellos se quiebran la espalda y trabajan de sol a sol por salarios debajo del minimo. Ellos viven en casas rodantes en estados muy precarios ni siquiera apropiados para animales. Lo mas alarmante y penoso es que sus bebes nacen con defectos y minusvalias causadas por el efecto de los pesticidas que se usan en los campos de cultivo. Uno de los mayores causantes es el herbicida metribuzin. El reporte de EPA advierte especificamente que “agricultores” sufren el riesgo de intoxicacion si ellos inhalan el mencionado quimico. La advertencia indica que se debe usar equipo de proteccion especial cuando se usa el mencionado quimico y tambien advierte que los trabajadores deben de esperar 12 horas antes de entrar en contacto con el terreno tratado. Entre los anos 1999 y 2003, Ag-Mart una compania productora en Plant City fue citada tres veces por inspectores estatales por violacion de regulaciones en el uso de pesticidas en los campos del estado de Florida. Las violaciones involucran directamente las advertencias de EPA en relacion al quimico metrabuzin: De no cumplir con mantener a los trabajadores fuera de los campos de cultivo despues del tiempo prudencial de haber tratado el terreno. De no cumplir con proveer proteccion adecuada cuando se tiene contacto directo con el quimico y de no cumplir con mantener los records adecuados del uso de herbicidas y pesticidas

There’s a major problem in the agricultural fields of Florida. Yet, it goes practically unnoticed because those affected are migrant farmworkers who often don’t speak much English. They pick our strawberries and tomatoes. They provide back breaking labor for sub standard wages. They often live in ramshackle trailers we wouldn’t consider appropriate for farm animals. Most tragically, their children are born with severe birth defects because of the pesticides used in these fields. One of the major culprits is the herbicide metribuzin. The EPA report on metribuzin specifically warns that “field workers” are at risk if they inhale the chemical. The warning calls for special protective equipment to be used when it is applied and also requires that workers wait 12 hours before entering a field where the chemical has been employed. Between 1999 and 2003, Ag-Mart, a produce company based in Plant City, was cited three times by state inspectors for violations of pesticide regulations in its Florida fields. Those violations involved the precise EPA concerns attached to a chemical such as metribuzin: failure to keep workers out of fields for a sufficient time after chemicals have been used, failure to provide proper protective equipment and failure to keep proper records of pesticide and herbicide use.

Drug maker Wyeth is expected to announce as early as today that a revised legal settlement, covering the most common damage claims for the diet drugs it once sold, has won final judicial approval. About 5.8 million people took Wyeth’s drugs Redux or Pondimin before they were removed from the market in 1997. The drugs constituted the fenfluramine portion of the once popular fen-phen diet combination.

Citing a growing number of deaths related to liver failure, the FDA has called for a stronger warning label for the antibiotic drug KetekThe FDA has received reports of 12 cases of acute liver failure, including the four deaths, in patients treated with Ketek, according to a copy of an FDA memo. FDA safety evaluators also uncovered 23 other cases where patients suffered serious liver injuries after receiving the antibiotic, which is formally called telithromycin.