Rural Latino communities in California face disproportionate health risk as a result of a highly toxic herbicide widely used on U.S. crop fields called Paraquat, a new study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) reveals.
Despite its links to Parkinson's disease and other health risks, including childhood leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Paraquat is widely used across the country. Crop growers are disproportionately spraying the chemical in areas dominated by large farms and inhabited by Latino farm workers and their families, making environmental health risks worse for the communities, according to the study.
