Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Reform in Costa Rica signals new strategy against lethal epidemic
In an unprecedented measure to combat a deadly kidney disease that is devastating agricultural workers in Central America, the president of Costa Rica announced a national regulation to limit heat stress and dehydration among manual laborers.
The new rule, made public on July 25, represents the first time that a government has sought to curb the epidemic by focusing on heat stress and dehydration. The policy comes as growing body of studies point to chronic dehydration from hard labor in tropical conditions as a leading cause of the disease.
In short, the studies show, laborers who harvest sugarcane and other profitable agricultural exports may literally be working themselves to death.
“All the data we have produced continue to indicate that recurrent heat stress and dehydration is the primary driver,” said Catharina Wesseling, a Costa Rica-based epidemiologist for the Karolinska Institute who has studied the disease for a decade.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/07/29/17716/reform-costa-rica-signals-new-strategy-against-lethal-epidemic
The new rule, made public on July 25, represents the first time that a government has sought to curb the epidemic by focusing on heat stress and dehydration. The policy comes as growing body of studies point to chronic dehydration from hard labor in tropical conditions as a leading cause of the disease.
In short, the studies show, laborers who harvest sugarcane and other profitable agricultural exports may literally be working themselves to death.
“All the data we have produced continue to indicate that recurrent heat stress and dehydration is the primary driver,” said Catharina Wesseling, a Costa Rica-based epidemiologist for the Karolinska Institute who has studied the disease for a decade.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/07/29/17716/reform-costa-rica-signals-new-strategy-against-lethal-epidemic
It would appear that glyphosate is not the primary culprit.
