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Farm workers' exposure to pesticides targeted

Tuesday, January 18, 2000

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

YAKIMA -- A survey of Yakima Valley farm workers found that about a quarter of those questioned don't wear protective gear for pesticides, and about half do not promptly remove and wash contaminated clothing when they go home, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center officials say.

The survey of 571 adults who worked in area fields and orchards last summer is part of a five-year, federal study of pesticide exposure among the workers and the effect on their children.

Researchers took urine samples from children and dust samples from farm workers' vehicles to assess children's exposure.

The samples will be screened for organophosphates, a class of pesticides that at high doses has been linked to cancer and can seriously affect the central nervous system, said Gloria Coronado, senior research specialist at the Hutchinson center in Seattle.

Test results will be available later this spring from the University of Washington.

"The exciting thing about this is that we will be able to do some intervention," Coronado said. "What's exciting to me is not only getting the information but being able to make a difference."

Researchers are working with a local advisory board that includes growers, health-care workers and farm-worker advocates, she said.

During the next two years, researchers will work to educate people about reducing children's risk of exposure. They then will take another round of urine and dust samples.

"We want to see if we were able to change people's practice and reduce their exposure to pesticides," Coronado said.

The project is part of a larger $6.75 million UW study of environmental health issues and children -- one of several such studies under way around the country financed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

There are some basic rules for avoiding contamination: removing shoes and work clothes, washing contaminated clothing separately, bathing, and not holding children until contaminated clothes are removed.

The survey found about a third of those interviewed had direct contact with pesticides -- applying, mixing or loading them.

About half the respondents reported changing clothes within an hour of coming home and not holding their children until they had changed clothes.

Hutch researchers hope to reach the nearly 50 percent who don't use those basic safeguards, Coronado said.

Experts agree that low-level contamination seems pervasive in workers who enter a field or orchard after pesticide has been sprayed and that chemical residue can be taken home on clothing or shoes.

The survey found only about 45 percent of people entering recently sprayed fields reported wearing boots, gloves, respirators and coveralls. Nearly 80 percent of those directly involved in the mixing, loading and application used such gear.

Overall, the survey found workers failed to use personal-protection equipment about 25 percent of the time, though it was unclear whether the equipment was required.

Laws governing use of safety gear vary widely depending on the chemical in use and the task being performed, said Mike Gempler, executive director of the Yakima-based Washington Growers League, which represents about 800 growers on labor issues.

"That 20 percent hole looks like non-compliance where there might not be," Gempler said.

For example, a person applying certain pesticides must wear a suit, hood, full-faced respirator, gloves and other protective gear. But no protection is required for someone entering a field 14 days after application.

The survey does not differentiate between types of exposure, said Gempler, who has reservations about the research project.

Farm-worker advocates hope the study will improve conditions.

"The contamination is so bad in the industry, it doesn't end in the fields. They bring it home in their shoes, cars and clothes," said Guadalupe Gamboa, Sunnyside-based regional director of the United Farm Workers of America.

"I think the Fred Hutchinson study is going to be very important in showing the extent and seriousness of the problem."

She and Gempler both are on the community advisory board.

In its report to the Legislature, the state Department of Health reported investigating 365 incidents of pesticide poisoning in 1997 affecting 441 people. More than half the incidents were agricultural, and four resulted in serious health problems.

The severity of poisonings appears to be diminishing, said Dr. Lynden Baum, manager of the department's pesticide and surveillance section.

"It's probably due to better education of licensed users of pesticides and the removal from use of many of the highly toxic insecticides," Baum said.

At lower levels of exposure, symptoms aren't as easily traced, he said.

According to state census figures, an estimated 78,000 people were hired for farm labor in Yakima County in 1997 -- nearly a quarter of the state's total agricultural work force. More than 68,500 worked less than six months for one farmer.

© 2000 The Associated Press.
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