Recent Findings and Impacts from the Sensor-Pesticides Program

BACKGROUND:  Since 1987, acute occupational pesticide-related illness and injury has been one of the conditions under surveillance by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).  NIOSH supports these surveillance activities by providing cooperative agreement funding and technical support to state health departments.  The program conducting these activities is the Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks (SENSOR)-Pesticides Program.  SENSOR-Pesticides is also partially funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  

METHODS:  Cases of acute pesticide-related illness and injury are identified and investigated by agencies in 12 states that participate in the SENSOR-Pesticides program. Data are submitted annually by each state agency to NIOSH, and NIOSH aggregates the data to produce a national database.   The SENSOR-Pesticides program also provides timely identification of emerging pesticide problems.  

RESULTS:  An update on recent findings and impacts from the SENSOR-Pesticides program will be provided.  Among other things, the program highlights the risks faced by agricultural workers. Agricultural workers have a 10-fold higher risk of acute pesticide-related illness and injury compared to workers in other industries.  EPA recently proposed enhanced regulations to protect farmworkers, which are the first major enhancements since 1992.  These regulatory enhancements were guided, in part, by SENSOR-Pesticides findings and recommendations.  In 2014 and 2015, findings from the SENSOR-Pesticides program were published in MMWR and peer-reviewed journals.  These included an MMWR article that described a cluster of acute pesticide-related illness among 20 farmworkers in Washington State on a case of acute acrolein poisoning.  This report highlighted three occupational hazards in agriculture: off-target pesticide drift; toxicity of some recently marketed pesticides; and a gap in worker notification requirements. Another MMWR article characterized acute illness associated with use of pest strips.  Finally, a peer-reviewed journal article described the characteristics and magnitude of acute pesticide-related illnesses associated with pyrethrins and pyrethroids.

CONCLUSIONS:  The SENSOR-Pesticides program is considered the principal source of pesticide-related surveillance data in the US, and perhaps the world.  It is a vital source of data for EPA to use when assessing whether pesticides are producing any unreasonable harm to human health.