Acute pesticide illnesses associated with off-target pesticide drift from agricultural applications - 11 states, 1998-2006

Details

• Personal Author:
  Beckman J ; Calvert, Geoffrey M. ; Diebolt-Brown B ; Gergely R ; Lackovic M ; Lee S-J ; Mehler L ; Mitchell Y ; Moraga-McHaley S ; Mulay P ; Prado J ; Schwartz A ; Waltz J
• Description:
  Background: Pesticides are widely used in agriculture and off-target pesticide drift results in exposures to workers and the public. Objective: Estimate the incidence of acute illnesses from pesticide drift from outdoor agricultural applications, and describe drift exposure and illness characteristics. Methods: Data were obtained from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks-Pesticides Program and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. Drift included off-target movement of pesticide spray, volatiles, and contaminated dust. Acute illness cases were characterized by demographics, pesticide and application variables, health effects, and contributing factors. Results: During 1998-2006, 2,945 cases associated with agricultural pesticide drift were identified from 11 states. Forty-seven percent had exposures at work, 92 percent experienced low severity illness, and 14 percent were children (<15 years). The annual incidence ranged from 1.39 to 5.32 per million persons over the 9-year period. The overall incidence (in million person-years) was 114.3 for agricultural workers, 0.79 for other workers, 1.56 for nonoccupational cases, and 42.2 for residents in 5 agriculture-intensive counties in California. Soil applications with fumigants were responsible for the largest proportion (45%) of cases. Aerial applications accounted for 24 percent of cases. Common factors contributing to drift cases included weather conditions, improper seal of the fumigation site, and applicator carelessness near non-target areas. Conclusions: Agricultural workers and residents in agricultural regions were found to have the highest rate of pesticide poisoning from drift exposure, and soil fumigations were a major hazard causing large drift incidents. These findings highlight areas where interventions to reduce off-target drift could be focused. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aerosols Agriculture Air Movements Air Pollutants, Occupational Demography Dust Environmental Monitoring Environmental Pollution Hazardous Substances Insecticides Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Paint Particulate Matter Poisoning Public Health Safety

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• Keywords:
  Acute-toxicity Aerosol-dispensers Agricultural-chemicals Agricultural-workers Air-flow Airborne-dusts Airborne-particles Author Keywords: Agriculture Biological-effects Children Demographic-characteristics Disease-incidence Drift Employee-exposure Environmental-contamination Exposure-assessment Fumigants Health-hazards Information-retrieval-systems Outdoors Pesticide-residues Pesticides Pesticides-and-agricultural-chemicals Poisoning Poisons Public-health Soil-analysis Spraying-equipment Sprays Surveillance Volatiles Worker-health

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• ISSN:
  0091-6765
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Florida ; Iowa ; Louisiana ; Michigan ; New Mexico ; New York ; Ohio ; Oregon ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 6 ; OSHA Region 7 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Texas ; Washington
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  119
• Issue:
  8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20038887
• Citation:
  Environ Health Perspect 2011 Aug; 119(8):1162-1169
• Contact Point Address:
  Geoffrey Calvert, MD, MPH, NIOSH, DSHEFS, 4676 Columbia Parkway, R-17, Cincinnati, OH 45226
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2011
• Performing Organization:
  Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Environmental Health Perspectives
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6c28256461880e23a39bcf2f9dff1dc4c946b94da1910179cc7cd2bebd745e6901f96f53e1166e62bc5cbe0b07013e1bec2c2074b7b7715c974e1e4fa886a724
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/192427/cdc_192427_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 268.79 KB ]