Grape Harvest Halted After Rash of Illness

MADERA, Calif. — The wine grape harvest at two Madera County vineyards has been halted temporarily by the state because of the apparent pesticide poisoning of dozens of field workers.

Jim Wells, chief of pesticide enforcement for the state Department of Food and Agriculture, said at least 14 workers have been admitted to hospitals over the last 10 days for treatment of dizziness, nausea and a drop in their blood enzyme levels.

Don Cripe, Madera County Agricultural Commissioner, said another three dozen workers were sickened but did not require hospitalization. “We haven’t found anything in those fields that should be capable of causing these illnesses,” Wells said Friday.

The symptoms were similar to poisoning caused by insecticides known as organophosphates, which can drop levels of blood enzymes.

The most recent incident occurred Thursday in a Madera County vineyard owned by George Kaufman. About 27 workers at the Kaufman vineyard fell ill and four were hospitalized overnight with dizziness and nausea.

Workers at a Madera vineyard owned by Vincent Paul Logoluso, located about a mile from the Kaufman vineyard, fell sick on Aug. 27. Ten of those workers were hospitalized and three still remain in the hospital.

Cripe said tests of Logoluso’s vineyard showed higher than expected levels of phosaline, an insecticide sold under the brand name Zolone, which was applied to the field July 17.

“All I can say is, I put on the material the way it was supposed to be,” Logoluso said. “What has happened, we just don’t know.”