Hochul signs Lyme bill to aid farmers, farmworkers

Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed legislation sponsored by two state lawmakers from the Mid-Hudson Valley that will provide assistance to help prevent and detect Lyme disease at farms in New York.

The bill (A.6888/S4089) — sponsored by Assemblywoman Didi Barrett, D-Hudson, and Sen. Michelle Hinchey, D-Saugerties — directs the state commissioner of agriculture and markets to “implement a public-awareness campaign focused on New York’s agricultural community, with an emphasis on helping farmers and farmworkers learn how to prevent, identify and treat a tick-borne illness.”

An announcement about the bill being signed said that, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 476,000 Americans are diagnosed with and treated for Lyme disease each year. The announcement said scientists “have reported a nearly 300 percent increase in U.S. counties classified as having a high incidence of Lyme disease, and New York has emerged as a hotspot, with the third-highest number of confirmed cases in the country.”

“Information is critical when it comes to fighting Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses, and this legislation will help farmers and farmworkers, whose livelihoods depend on working outdoors and in … tick-prone areas, better understand how to prevent identify, and treat these potentially debilitating diseases,” Hinchey said in a statement. She said it is “incredibly important to amplify this urgent public health concern with the workers who are most susceptible.”

Barrett said that ticks that carry Lyme and other diseases “are active whenever the temperatures are above freezing, making farmers and farm workers at risk much of the year.”