Activist Group Measures Pollution When Government Doesn't

May 10, 2007— -- In Watsonville, Calif., the strawberries in the fields are "as big as plums," says Roy Jiminez.

They are also grown, he says, with thousands of pounds of pesticides, and he suspects that many of the farm workers who come to his clinic are paying a price for that.

"There are horror stories about people with cancer, skin problems, respiratory diseases that are off the charts," he tells ABC News.

But whenever the California Department of Pesticide Regulation comes to check on things, "the farmers and growers' groups are hovering over them to make sure there's no disruption.

"In no way does the state ever stop production," says Jiminez, "even though in some cases I think they should."

Jiminez is head of a community health center called Salud Para La Gente ("Health for the People"). He and groups in three other parts of the country have joined in a new campaign: if others don't look out for the health of people in their area, they'll do it themselves.

They are training volunteers — young people, in most cases— with pollution detectors, GPS locators and video cameras. The teams will go checking for air and water pollution in their neighborhoods.

The "Eco-Pacs" they carry will measure carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, water acidity and other signs of pollution. Where they find it, they document it, to pass on to government agencies, or use in campaigns to protect public health.

The project is called HEAN— Health Environment Action Network— and its beginning efforts are in areas with large Hispanic populations.

"The EPA measurements are often not in the communities where people live," says Dr. Jane Delgado, president of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, which organized the project. She's been pushing and prodding the government in Washington for years, trying to persuade regulators to do their jobs more aggressively.

"Many of the ways we look at health are wrong," she says. "A lot of it has to do with the environment. Asthma rates are going up because of the air we're breathing."