THE MOST POLLUTED AIR IN AMERICA:

The United Farm Workers have fought an ongoing struggle against exposure of workers to toxic chemicals at the workplace, but California farmworkers are also exposed to air pollution in their place of residence where they and their families live in the time off work. The small farm worker town of Arvin in the San Joaquin Valley of California has the dubious distinction of having "the most polluted air in the USA". The geographical situation and temperatures of this town mean that pollutants that blow in from as far away as San Fransico simply stay there. In comparison to SF which averages only 4 days over the allowable EPA limit on ozone from 2004 to 2006 Arvin averaged 73 days per year. This means that farm workers have to endure toxic air not just at work but also where they live. The Valley's air-quality Board has voted to extend the deadline for cleaning up this mess for another eleven years, putting off the due date from 2013 to 2024. The Governor of California has criticized this egregious decision and even gone so far as to fire the director of the state California Air resources Board who approved the local decision.

The UFW are urging their supporters to write the state Board, with its newly appointed chairman, that will be meeting in early September. They urge their supporters to ask for an overturn of this decision. Seventeen more years are too much to suffer. To join this campaign go to http://www.ufwaction.org/campaign/smog/5uuwwu9z35b8ek? .