Another Central Valley field laborer loading grapes became ill last week in extreme heat and remains in serious condition, breathing with a respirator, the United Farm Workers Union said Wednesday.
Jorge Herrera, 37, suffered brain, lung and kidney damage on July 10 and is in San Joaquin Community Hospital in Bakersfield, union spokeswoman Vicki Adame said. Cal-OSHA is investigating his illness as heat-related, said Kate McGuire, spokeswoman for the state occupational and safety agency.
Herrera fell ill the same day that Abdon Felix, 42, became the third farm field laborer since May whose death is being investigated as heat-related. Both became ill in the Bakersfield region. Felix's job was also loading boxes of grapes onto a truck. The two men worked at different companies. A 17-year-old girl working in the vineyards near Stockton in May also died of heat-related illness.
A fourth farmworker died last week as well, also on July 10, but his death will not be investigated as heat-related until the Fresno County coroner finishes its review.
Cal-OSHA officials said that since the beginning of this year, the agency has conducted 659 inspections of businesses and issued 348 citations for violations of heat-stress regulations.
In Sacramento Tuesday, a group of activists held a protest downtown at Cesar Chavez Park, blaming Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cal-OSHA and the UFW for not doing enough to prevent farmworker deaths.
Paramo Hernandez, a Sacramento resident, said in Spanish that heat regulations in place since 2005 "are not worth the paper they are written on" because they don't hold farm owners responsible for violations committed by labor contractors hired to supply workers on a farm.
Call The Bee's Susan Ferriss, (916) 321-1267.
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