By WGCU Public Media
The worst of the nation’s historic job losses are yet to come, according to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who told Fox News Sunday that “the reported numbers are probably going to get worse before they get better.” Mnuchin’s comments followed Friday’s report from the Labor Department showing the U.S. lost a…
There are 47,000 farms in Florida, making up a more-than-$7 billion industry, yet farmworkers remain invisible and among the most vulnerable populations in Florida at risk of illness from constant exposure to heat.
This story was first published by Orlando Sentinel, the Center for Public Integrity and Columbia Journalism Investigations. It is republished here through the Florida Climate Reporting Network/Covering Climate Now.
For more than two decades now, Jeannie Economos has been advocating for farmworkers’ health. Pesticide exposure was her first focus. But for half that time, she’s also zeroed in on deadly heat.
“It gets hotter every summer,” said Economos, coordinator of pesticide safety and environmental health at Farmworker Association of Florida. “This past summer was one of the hottest on the record and the number of hot days are getting more and more every year.”
Florida farmworkers have long faced dangers from laboring outside in sweltering heat. As climate change raises temperatures, heat illness could come for far more people.
Farmworkers have long faced dangers from laboring outside in sweltering heat. As climate change raises temperatures, heat illness could come for far more people.
Florida farmworkers have long faced dangers from laboring outside in sweltering heat. As climate change raises temperatures, heat illness could come for far more people.