Pesticide Protection for Farmworkers

This is an urgent call for help to protect farm workers from hazardous pesticide exposure and extreme weather conditions by providing them much needed and overdue PPE for the workplace. These workers are our essential workers, they have never failed to provide us with the fruits and veggies we need to survive so it’s our turn to provide them with the protection they deserve. These people are heroes and they need their armor. All farmworkers must have access to proper pesticide protection equipment to protect them from hazardous pesticide exposure. These dangerous pesticides are not only dangerous to farmworkers but also their families and children upon entering the home. 

Pesticide exposure has been an underlying issue in the farmworker community long before Covid. Pesticides provide pest control by poisoning pests but unfortunately pesticides can also poison humans.

The success of this program became very serious to us as we started looking deeper into the lives of farmworkers, we were shocked at the realization that farmworkers children are the most vulnerable to the exposure and many become sick from parents walking into the home with their outside work clothes covered in pesticide residue.

Farmworkers are NOT supplied with PPE for the workplace unlike many other labor forces are for the safety of their workers. Farmworkers are forced to wear their own clothing from home and any type of protective gear is NOT provided by their employers. It should be DEMANDED that farmworkers get the proper pesticide protection they deserve. They already get the lowest wages in America and little to no access to affordable health care, why should they have to provide their own safety equipment?

And this is where you can help, our goal is to protect as many farm workers as possible with your donations. We do have a starting goal of 1,000 farmworkers to ensure an impact can be made and an impact that will draw attention from farm and agricultural representatives. Each will receive a hazmat suit, a pair of work gloves, eye protective goggles, pesticide resistant mask and work boots . The boots are important so they do not enter their homes with their inside shoes covered in pesticide dirt. The cost of fully protecting one farmworker is roughly $100.

Pesticide exposure amongst farm workers is a serious issue of environmental injustice. If you’re worried about eating a piece of fruit with pesticide residue on it remember that farm workers are exposed to pesticides all year long for more than 8 hours a day, every day, without ways to avoid the pesticide exposure, and without having a say in pesticide regulations. On top of it all, remember pesticide exposure weakens the respiratory system, nervous system, and immune system causing serious COVID-19 risks amongst farmworkers.

It’s our duty to protect our own people from the neglect they continue to receive and the systems failure to provide protection to our essential workers. These workers are heroes and they need their armor. #protectfarmworkers 

* All donations will be withdrawn into nonprofit Celebration Nation’s bank account where the funds will be relocated into purchasing the needed protection gear to 1,000 farmworkers. These items will be distributed directly to farmworkers at the workplace by Celebration Nation representatives who have access to hundreds of farms in California, US.