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Abstract

This paper´s primary objective is to contribute to the discussions and reflections about care and health of agricultural workers. There are contexts in the Mexican countryside where those subjects are not considered in a fair dimension. Aspects of health and safety to protect the life and good health conditions of those who carry out their task of cultivating and marketing products from the field are frequently ignored. A widespread notion on the subject is that work in precarious conditions is normal and that exposure to risks is also normal. A fall, aspiration of agrochemicals, improper storage of products, use of buckets instead of stairs for pruning and other activities, are seen as part of the everyday life of the environment linked to agricultural work. Land, water and wind are elements and natural resources that are essential to achieve productive cycles but which in turn can become hazards and creators of dangers. There is a number of legal regulatory frameworks that give rise to standards implementation schemes in order to prevent diseases, loss of capacities and in an extreme case, death. Without any doubt there are places in Mexico where it is possible to apply, perhaps largely, the set of rules suggested in relation to the subject. However, in a greater proportion, it is possible to be aware of the contradictions that reality presents. A large part of the field workers do not have minimum notions of the dangers presented by several of the activities carried out and this work presents some considerations on agricultural work in the main producing region of tomato in Chiapas: the Comiteca Plateau.

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