The goal of this study was to describe acute occupational pesticide-related illnesses among youths and to provide prevention recommendations. Survey data from 8 states and from poison control center data were analyzed.

In response to limitations in state-based occupational disease surveillance, the California Department of Health Services developed a model for surveillance of acute, work-related pesticide illness. The objectives were to enhance case reporting and link case reports to preventive interventions. Risk factors for pesticide illness were prevalent. 

Public health surveillance for acute pesticide intoxications is discussed. Explanation of the goals, components and functions of population-based surveillance is provided with reference to key informational sources.

Surveillance data show that pesticide-related illness is an important cause of acute morbidity among migrant farm workers in California. Exposures occur in various ways (e.g., residues, drift), suggesting that the use of pesticides creates a hazardous work environment for all farm workers  Improved education for health care providers should be a priority. Growers should be educated about alternative forms of pest control and incentives should be provided to encourage their use.

The CHAMACOS study is a longitudinal birth cohort study examining chemicals and other factors in the environment and children's health. 

In 1999-2000, CHAMACOS enrolled 601 pregnant women living in the agircultural Salinas Valley.  They are following their children through age 12 to measure their exposures to pesticides and other chemicals and to determine if this exposure impacts their growth, health, and development. 

Reducing exposure to toxic environmental agents is a critical area of intervention for obstetricians, gynecologists, and other reproductive health care professionals.  The evidence that links exposure to toxic environmental agents and adverse reproductive and developmental health outcomes is sufficiently robust, and the American College of Ostetricicans and Gynecologists and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine join leading scientists and other clinical practitioners in calling for timely action to identify and reduce exposure to toxic envrionmental agents while addressing the consequences of such exposure.

MCN's Director of Environmental and Occupational Health, Amy K. Liebman, appeared on the radio broadcast Epicenter: West Marin Issues on KWMR 90.5 FM to talk pesticides and the Worker Protection Standard. Liebman was joined by Hector Sanchez of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. Host Frederick Smith discusses with Liebman and Sanchez a variety of pesticide-related issues, including protections for farmworkers and their families, farmworkers' risks of pesticide exposures, how pesticides are regulated, their health effects on farmworkers and their families, and what healthcare providers can do to mitigate, diagnose, manage, and report pesticide exposures.

During the interview Liebman referenced the Agricultural Health Study, which is available here.

The Occupational Health and Safety Resource Center is a virtual repository of Spanish educational materials, data sources, and links to bilingual informational websites on occupational health and safety issues related to agricultural work. It also contains an ample list of national and state agencies that have produced materials in Spanish for farmworkers’ health-related problems.

MCNs own Deliana Garcia helped in being a part of the advisory committee to this resource center.

What is the objective?  To facilitate a central access point to high quality Spanish educational materials on agricultural occupational health and safety issues for people conducting work on health promotion and prevention activities and on workers’ rights and problems related to agricultural work.

Who are the target audiences? Health-outreach workers (promotores), community advocates, health providers, contractors/employers, farmworkers and their families, and others interested in the health and safety issues of agricultural workers.

What areas are included? The materials cover five key relevant areas: 1) Farmworkers’ rights; 2) Injury prevention; 3) Respiratory illnesses; 4) Heat illnesses; and 5) Pesticide exposure.

How did we do it? To develop the Virtual Resource Center, the process entailed:

• Asset mapping of educational, informational and research materials available in Spanish related to the five mentioned areas.
• Selection of materials using the following criteria: accurate information, culturally and linguistically adequate (including literacy level), relevant to health area, and visually acceptable quality.
• Insertion of resources into an excel format under five different categories, including source, type of material, and description of its content.

Development of new materials: to complement the existing educational resources, we developed a “Promotores Training Manual on Occupational Health and Safety of Agricultural Workers”.  Based on an ethnographic framework, the manual presents the perspective of agricultural workers on the five mentioned areas (their stories) and provides community health workers with tools on how to conduct prevention and promotion activities. It also refers them to existing resources.  We also produced a series of Spanish and selected indigenous languages Public Service Announcements (PSAs) on these areas.

Glenn Shor, Phd, MPP, Visiting Policy Analyst at the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.

This report was funded, in part, by The California Wellness Foundation, for UCSF Community Occupational Health Project, Barbara Burgel, Nan Lashuay, and Robert Harrison, 2004 - 2006.

These are the slides from an MCN/ Farmworker Justice sponsored webinar titled "Caring for the Injured Worker: Effective Partnerships between Clinicians, Health Centers, and Lawyers."

Originally presented on Wednesday June 26, 2013

PRESENTERS: Brent Probinsky, JD, Probinsky and Associates, PA

Dr. Ed Zuroweste, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Migrant Clinicians Network

RECORDED WEBINAR

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

This website and training material were developed to give communities and promotores ways to help farm workers learn how to protect themselves from pesticide exposure.

The project and all materials on the website were developed by the California Poison Control System in collaboration with the the Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety at the University of California, Davis and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.

Part 4 of 7 webinars in the CLINICIAN ORIENTATION TO MIGRATION HEALTH series.

DATE RECORDED: May 15, 2013

PRESENTERS: Amy K. Leibman, MPA, MA, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health, Migrant Clinicians Network

Dr. Mike Rowland, MD, MPH, Vice President, Medical Affairs and Medical Director, Occupational Health, Franklin Memorial Hospital

OBJECTIVES:

• Recognize the unique health risks of migrants due to their working conditions and environment
• Identify promising practices in environmental and occupational health that are feasible to implement in Migrant and Community Health Centers
• Utilize online clinical and patient education tools and resources to recognize, prevent and manage environmental and occupaional illnesses and injuries

This webinar is the second in a series of seven in our Clinician Orientation to Migration Health.

DATE RECORDED: Wednesday, March 13, 2013
PRESENTED BY: Jennie McLaurin, MD, MPH, Specialist in Child and Migrant Health, Migrant Clinicians Network

To view the recorded version of this webinar, click here.

This webinar is the first in a series of seven in our Clinician Orienatation to Migration Health.

DATE RECORDED: Wednesday, February 13, 2013
PRESENTED BY: Deliana Garcia, MA, International Research and Development, Migrant Clinicians Network

To view the recorded version of this webinar, click here.