Pesticide Poisoning Can Look Like Other Illnesses 265
Doctors do not always have the answers
Carolina worked on a large strawberry farm.
One day her stomach hurt and her eyes
burned. She stopped working and went to
talk to her boss. Her boss told her to go
see the company doctor.
When she got to the doctor’s office, he
was not very friendly or helpful. Carolina
thought pesticides might have made her
sick, but she was too shy to say this to the
doctor. The doctor did not ask her about
her work or why she thought she was sick.
The doctor asked Carolina questions that made her feel like being sick was
her fault: What did you eat today? Do you smoke cigarettes or drink a lot of
alcohol? What did you do after work yesterday? Did you sleep enough?
In the end the doctor told her she was just lazy and only wanted a note to get
out of work. He even said she might be sick from being drunk!
Finally the doctor gave her some pills for headaches. She was not sure the
pills would help, but she took them anyway. As she went home, she wondered
about going back to work the next day. She felt worse after seeing the doctor
than she did before.
How could Carolina have gotten better care?
Perhaps if she brought the label of the pesticide she worked with and told the
doctor it was what made her sick, he would have considered pesticide poisoning
as a cause for her illness.
But even if she had done this, it might not have helped. The doctor worked for
the company that owned the strawberry farm. Often company doctors will not
admit that pesticides make farm workers sick. Pesticide illness can be difficult
and expensive to treat. The company may prefer to hire new workers rather than
treat their sick workers.
Perhaps Carolina could have gone to another doctor. But this would have
been expensive, and she would have to take more time off from work. And most
doctors do not know much about pesticides.
This is a very difficult problem for Carolina, and for all farm workers. The
best way for farm workers like Carolina to take care of their health is to work
together to change the conditions that make them sick in the first place.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012