No, the coronavirus has not reached the Marina Alta, although many of the symptoms that hysteria has generated. A large number of people and the media seem to be wanting to live the experience, some to add excitement to their routine and others to profit from simple clicks. However, there are people who are really suffering from this artificial alarm.
These people don't have coronaviruses, I insist, but his work has been affected because of the alarmists, so much that even your health is compromised. These are the farm workers.
The scariest of each city and town have run in droves to get the latest complement to look fashionable: the mask. Paper or active carbon mask, no matter the model if you can go to the last and avoid a cold. Because little else will get with this type of protection. If you intend to get rid of the coronavirus, whose mortality rate is lower than most flu as it does not get tired of repeating the WHO, it is not what will save them.
The lack of masks has worse consequences than the coronavirus
Now, what they have achieved with that fever typical of the sales is that people who really require these masks do not have them. And we talk about paper masks and masks with filters, which professionals from various sectors need, such as the field.
In the distribution companies of agricultural equipment of the Marina Alta the stocks of these masks are increasingly scarce. We talked to ask about the masks with Jaime Mut, SL, a company dedicated to agricultural supplies and phytosanitary treatments, which tells us that they only have one left and do not know when they will receive more.
From Agricultural Supplies Francisco Sanfélix, responsible for distributing to stores throughout the Valencian Community, declare to this newspaper that it is a generalized problem with this type of sales premises. The masks, which insist that they do not serve as protection against viruses, are no longer available in stores. The manufacturer, a company in Barcelona that has not wanted to make statements, has informed them that within 15 or 20 days they will not have more to take them to establishments.
And when we investigate what this protection mechanism is needed in the field, we see that the situation is really alarming, more than any coronavirus that respondents do not get tired of pointing out as guilty of the situation. A worker cannot work without a mask in certain jobs. First, because he risks a penalty, and secondly, and much more importantly, because he would put his life at risk.
Very protected in the city, but unprotected in the countryside
It occurs with the basic paper masks that protect those who work with tractors from dust, but also those that carry out phytosanitary treatments. “We are obliged to use these protection elements at all times. If we don't wear a mask, we play our lives ”, José Félix Turpin, manager of Seyma Endoterapia Plant, Dénia company that is dedicated to comprehensive gardening services and phytosanitary applications.
"Luckily, we tend to be very predictive and have several boxes of material, because we use it every day of work", notes Turpin, who assumes that if they were left without masks they would have to completely paralyze the days until you have more.
It is with this that those people who need them to work meet. They have to cancel their day, lose those earnings or, on the contrary, pay a high economic price, because their use is required under penalty, and health, because it is highly dangerous carry out certain tasks without them, such as the use of pesticides.
The true diseases that coronavirus fashion entails
And, in addition to the most extreme case in which it can lead to death, acute poisoning causes severe symptoms in a short time or, in the long term, chronicles. Pesticides can be suspended in the atmosphere in the form of small particles (dust, fog ..., etc.), and can reach the lungs along with the air that workers breathe, as warned us from Grupo ESOC, a company dedicated to training in occupational hazards.
We speak with Merche Mira, from the ESOC technical department, which tells us that the handling of these chemicals, with people like José Félix Turpin working daily, without the use of masks that are now scarce can lead to serious poisoning diseases pulmonary, asthmatic problems and even lung cancer.
Therefore, to protect against the danger of inhalation of dusts or vapors released during the handling and application of the products, which has a much higher mortality rate than the coronavirus, protective mask should always be used.
Let the field breathe
As we see firsthand through the experience of these professionals consulted, we are focusing on a minor danger to provoke a greater one. The small magnifying glass that can cause a huge fire. If we really want to continue with a healthy society, we must reopen the doors to good sense and leave alarms. Undoubtedly, this would save more lives than acquiring a simple paper mask.
Let the workers of the farm work.
