The Atlantic – Professional pickers tend to work seasonally, with many driving hundreds of miles (sometimes with families in tow) to reap pumpkins, pears, berries, or whatever is in season in various parts of the country. (Researchers at Washington State University, which is near America’s biggest apple-producing region, announced last summer that they were testing an apple-picking robot.)
PBS Newshour – Recommended cleanups and exposure studies were shelved. Awareness campaigns stalled. Data was lost. Meanwhile, the contamination lingers and families have been left in the dark. “[the Department of Ecology] is aware of all this stuff. They have a legal right to enforce this stuff, but they’re choosing not to,” said Frank Peryea, who studied lead and arsenic for decades with Washington State University. He said state regulators have no easy answer for such widespread contamination.