By Sophia Tareen
December 15, 2020 at 9:00 pm CST
CHICAGO (AP) â More than two dozen migrant workers from Texas allege they were sprayed with toxic pesticides while working in Illinois cornfields, according to a federal lawsuit.
The workers, including teenagers, senior citizens and a pregnant woman, claim they were sprayed by a helicopter and plane treating fields in July and August 2019, despite wearing neon orange hats and backpacks.
The 27 workersâ symptoms, according to the lawsuit filed Dec. 2 in Springfield, included shortness of breath, blurred vision, eye irritation, vomiting and dizziness. Some said their systems have persisted.
âNo farmworker should be exposed to poisonous chemicals when doing their job, let alone multiple times in two weeks,â Lisa Palumbo, the director of Legal Aid Chicagoâs Immigrants and Workersâ Rights project, said in a statement.
Courtesy of Meyer Agri-Air
Originally published on December 10, 2020 11:56 am
In late July 2019, a group of migrant farmworkers from south Texas was working in a cornfield in DeWitt County, Ill., when suddenly a crop duster flew overhead, spraying them with pesticides. Panicked, the crew, which included teenagers and a pregnant woman, ran off the field with clothes doused in pesticides. Their eyes and throats burned and some had trouble breathing.
It happened again two weeks later, this time twice within 30 minutes.
The lawsuit alleges the workers were plainly visible, dressed in neon orange hats and backpacks. Once sprayed, the crew’s employer Pioneer Hi-Bred International, an Iowa-based seed company “failed to provide adequate decontamination measures,” the lawsuit says.
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