Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
figure 5.7.TheUnitedFruitCompany's''secondclass''hospitalwardinTela(1923).
UnitedFruitCompanyPhotographCollection.BakerLibrary,HarvardBusinessSchool.
cause workers failed to use it properly. One former worker agreed that
screeningcutdown,butdidnoteliminate,exposuretomosquitoes:''Since
there were so many workers in a single room, a good portion of whom
were drunk, the doorat times got left open and mosquitoes came in.''
91
As
CharlesKepnerpointedoutinhis1936study,evenifscreenswereproperly
installed and maintained, mosquitoes could easily enter worker housing
due to the absence of ceilings and openings between the walls and the
floorboards.
The crowded, poorly ventilated barracks found in banana camps
along with the constant farm-to-farm migrations, contributed to high
rates of respiratory illnesses among workers. In fact, between 1914 and
1931,farmoreUnitedFruitemployeesinCentralAmericadiedfromres-
piratory illnesses than from malaria. In Honduras, pneumonia accounted
formanymoredeaths(602)thanmalaria(234)between1923and1926.Tu-
berculosis was also responsible for many deaths.
92
In contrast to their ag-
gressivecampaignagainstmalaria,thefruitcompaniesdidlittletoaddress
the housing conditions contributing to high rates of respiratory illness.
According to one U.S. embassy ocial, Tela Railroad Company workers
