Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
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to farm workers' health, because many workers are transient and rarely
report health concerns to the local authorities. One recent study, however,
used labor union and cancer registry data in California to find a strong
correlation: exposure to certain pesticides increased farm workers' risk of
prostate cancer 30-50 percent (Mills and Yang 2003). Such findings can only
be viewed as conservative, given the level of underreporting among these
workers.
Overall, agrichemical related illnesses are quite common among farm-
ers, as reported by the large Agricultural Health Study of Iowa and North
Carolina farmers. In fact, 7 percent of licensed restricted-use pesticide ap-
plicators have sought medical attention for chemical illness at some point
(Alavanja et al. 1998). Farmers are mostly motivated to seek medical help
because of acute poisoning, but the problem is also chronic, as blood sam-
ples from farm families show increased levels of pesticides that were used
on the farm decades ago, but which have since been banned (Brock et
al. 1998). Although we may not be aware of it, pesticide exposure occurs
through many channels. For example, children of farm families are exposed
to higher levels of pesticides than nonfarm kids, because these chemicals
are found in their household dust (Simcox et al. 1995). In addition, studies
show that birth defects and even infant deaths from these abnormalities are
linked to pesticide exposures (Schreinemachers 2003).
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Pe
sticide Regulation
The majority of U.S. agriculture follows the industrial, conventional system
that relies on synthetic agrichemicals. Given the prominence of these pesti-
cides and fertilizers, most people would assume that there is a central data
bank that indicated the status of various pesticides in the United States.Well,
this centralized, fundamental information does not exist. But with a great
deal of poking and prodding, the various information sources can be found.
The federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act authorizes EPA to set maximum
residue levels, or tolerances, for pesticides used in or on foods or animal feed.
As far as human impacts, the act mandates primarily a health-based stan-
dard for setting the tolerance as “reasonable certainty of no harm.” So the
EPA follows a four-step process for human health risk assessment: Hazard
Identification, Assessing Dose, Assessing Exposure, Risk Characterization
(which is defined as Risk = Toxicity × Exposure). “Once EPA completes the
risk assessment process for a pesticide, we use this information to determine
if (when used according to label directions) there is a reasonable certainty
that the pesticide will not harm a person's health” (USEPA 1999).
