What is killing sugar-cane workers across Central America?

… But an increasing number of researchers in the US now believe the CKD is being caused by heat stress and dehydration – that the labourers are, in effect, working themselves to death. A standard day for an El Salvadorian sugar worker lasts between four and five hours, with double shifts during the summer planting season, when temperatures top out at 40C.

“It’s suffocating,” Edilberto says. “In the five hours there’s no break. Many of my workmates have fainted in the fields. Sometimes they vomit, too.” Water, he says, is not supplied. “I bring my own. Perhaps two to three litres.” …