Farm Worker Exposure in the US

The General Accounting Office (GAO) in the US has conducted a study to determine the extent to which US Government programmes and regulations protect farmers and farm workers from unnecessary pesticide risks. GAO looked at the relative merits of state pesticide-illness monitoring systems—and by far, California came out on top.

The report stresses that while consumer exposure to low levels of pesticide residues in food and water has been the focus of attention in recent years, much less attention has been placed on the potentially greater risk faced by occupational exposure in the farm sector. In the US farming community there are between 3.2 and 4 million people exposed to pesticides either directly through application activities, or indirectly from contact with residues on treated crop fields. Based on data from California, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that there are at least 20,000 illnesses associated with the occupational use of pesticides on US farms each year. Others have put estimates as high as 300,000.
    The risks vary because properties of all pesticides are different. Incidents can occur through accidents, misuse or lack of awareness. However farm worker organisations and health professionals have also expressed concern that even when certain pesticides are used properly (according to label instructions) farm workers and applicators still face risk that can result in illnesses.
    GAO found that only eight states in the US (Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, New York, Oregon, Texas and Washington) have established mandatory reporting regulations that are specific to pesticides. Of these, California is the only state with a well-developed monitoring system. Except for special research studies, none of the reporting systems addressed the delayed onset or chronic effects of pesticides. Most States which are monitoring only began to develop systems in the late 1980s. In California 2,995 illness and injury cases were identified in 1990 as potentially resulting from pesticide exposure. Of this total, 1,987 were classified as definitely, probably or possibly related to pesticide exposure, including 580 cases from agricultural use. Other States registered fewer: 14 in Texas and 300 in Washington for 1991. Under-reporting was widely recognised and thought to be difficult to assess.
    At the national level, GAO found information on agricultural health, occupational exposure, poisonings and pesticide use. However, only limited information is provided on pesticide illness. In 1978 the EPA adopted a Pesticide Incident Monitoring System (PIMS) to co-ordinate and collect information on the adverse effects of pesticides. In 1981 PIMS funding was cut, although the EPA has continued to receive voluntary reports of pesticide incidents since PIMS stopped. In 1991, the EPA set up the Incident Data System (IDS), taking data from voluntary sources and pesticide registrants, including manufacturers. Since IDS became operational the EPA has received about 3,500 incident reports, including 1,600 involving people.
    GAO suggested that the Californian system could serve as a technical model for the EPA and selected states for monitoring illnesses associated with the agricultural use of pesticides. A combination of monitoring strategies that use different data sources may provide the best means to achieve improvement. Monitoring strategies of potential utility include hospital-based surveys, illness and injury reporting systems (by health care providers and others), population-based surveys (involving field studies) and exposure surveillance (such as farm worker exposure).

Pesticides on Farms: Limited Capability Exists to Monitor Occupational Illnesses and Injuries, General Accounting Office, GAO/PEMD-94-6, December 1993.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 24, June 1994, page 14]