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Surveillance of Hired Farm Worker Health and Occupational Safety

Appendix C: List of Research Priorities

Priority #1: Pesticides

  1. Exposure studies
    1. Exposure vs. health effect
    2. Burden
      • What are "safe" levels of exposure to specific pesticides for pregnant women x days after application?
    3. Biomarkers
      • Changes over time, metabolites
    4. Other points
      • Antibody test to determine cholinesterase inhibition in absence of baseline
      • Recognition of some systemic exposure with dermal exposure
      • Cumulative effect of repeated, long-term exposure
  2. Poisonings
    1. Need for diagnostic criteria (including clinical source, lab tests often not done at time of event)
    2. Need for functional case definition
    3. Other points
      • Recognize that definite exposure, without specific illness, is legitimate workers' compensation claim case
      • Distribution of cases by sector of agriculture, the SIC code
  3. Pregnancy/reproductive outcomes
    1. Birth defects
    2. Neural tube
    3. Sterility
  4. Neurologic
    1. Neuropsychiatric outcomes
      • Neuropsychologic effects such as anxiety or "nervios."
      • Prevalence, Causes - work, living conditions, money
    2. Parkinson's disease
    3. Muscle weakness
    4. Alzheimer's disease
    5. Other Points
      • Impossible to demonstrate cause/effect in individual cases with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's
      • Headaches
  5. Multiple chemical sensitivity
    1. Allergies
    2. Other conditions
    3. Other points
      • Flashback symptoms, pesticide exposure produces symptoms caused by prior poisoning
      • Eye conditions
      • Extent of disability
  6. Genotoxicity/chromosomal damage related to exposure
  7. Ongoing longitudinal health study
  8. Immunological
  9. Control population difficult to obtain

Priority #2: Ergonomic/Musculoskeletal Conditions

  1. Case definition
  2. Diagnostic Criteria

Priority #3: Injuries

  1. Workers' Compensation
    1. Prevalence of conditions
    2. Reporting and recognition of WC claims and acceptance and payment of claims
    3. Barriers (such as Proposition 187)
  2. Rehabilitation
  3. Prevalence/incidence
  4. Prevention/intervention
  5. Transportation
  6. Disability

Priority #4: Effect of Protective Measures

  1. Evaluate pesticide restricted entry intervals
  2. Personal protective equipment
  3. Others

Priority #5: Cancer

  1. Breast Cancer
  2. Childhood Cancers
  3. Leukemia
  4. Other

Priority #6: Choice of Control/Comparison Population

  1. Non-agricultural populations
  2. Other

Priority #7: Mental Health

  1. Stress
  2. Pesticides
  3. Others

This document is in the public domain and may be freely copied or reprinted.

NOTE: This document is provided for historical purposes only.

Page last updated: September 18, 2000
Page last reviewed: September 18, 2000
Content Source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies

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