The Environmental and Social Injustice of Farmworker Pesticide Exposure

Abstract

The premise of this Article is that social, economic, and political factors interact in a way that ensures that farmworkers continue to lack participation in decision-making in pesticide regulation, that disproportionate health impacts are perpetuated, and that changing the status quo is difficult. Farmworkers have had little success in addressing harmful occupational pesticide exposure using methods that some environmental justice communities have employed, i.e., lobbying for effective regulation, engaging in public demonstration, or pursuing traditional litigation.7 In order to find appropriately tailored remedies for this particular environmental injustice, it is important to recognize that disproportionate pesticide exposure has less to do with a particular framework of regulation and more to do with underlying social and economic forces.