Yet this immigrant farm worker and many of her co-workers are very familiar with this acutely toxic pesticide's health effects. Maria lives in the San Andreas work camp in Watsonville, California.
Strawberry fields surround the camp on three sides, and a major road borders the fourth.
Since 1987, San Andreas has been evacuated twice, both times when methyl bromide escaped from underneath the plastic which is used to cover the fields into which this deadly chemical is injected. A fence and narrow trench are all that separate her backyard from over 55 acres of flower fields. For many years, she never worried. I took it for granted that they wouldn't be doing anything back there that would harm their neighbors' health. In 1993, her daughter had a seizure at preschool.