Environmental Health Perspectives
Volume 114, Issue 6, 2006, Pages 923-928

Farmworker exposure to pesticides: Methodologic issues for the collection of comparable data (Article)

Arcury T.A.* , Quandt S.A. , Barr D.B. , Hoppin J.A. , McCauley L. , Grzywacz J.G. , Robson M.G.
  • a Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1084, United States
  • b Division of Public Health Sciences, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1084, United States
  • c National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States
  • d Epidemiology Branch, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Departmentof health and Human Services, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States
  • e School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
  • f Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1084, United States
  • g School of Public Health, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, United States

Abstract

The exposure of migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families to agricultural and residential pesticides is a continuing public health concern. Pesticide exposure research has been spurred on by the development of sensitive and reliable laboratory techniques that allow the detection of minute amounts of pesticides or pesticide metabolites. The power of research on farmworker pesticide exposure has been limited because of variability in the collection of exposure data, the predictors of exposure considered, the laboratory procedures used in analyzing the exposure, and the measurement of exposure. The Farmworker Pesticide Exposure Comparable Data Conference assembled 25 scientists from diverse disciplinary and organizational backgrounds to develop methodologic consensus in four areas of farmworker pesticide exposure research: environmental exposure assessment, biomarkers, personal and occupational predictors of exposure, and health outcomes of exposure. In this introduction to this mini-monograph, first, we present the rationale for the conference and its organization. Second, we discuss some of the important challenges in conducting farmworker pesticide research, including the definition and size of the farmworker population, problems in communication and access, and the organization of agricultural work. Third, we summarize major findings from each of the conference's four foci - environmental exposure assessment, biomonitoring, predictors of exposure, and health outcomes of exposure - as well as important laboratory and statistical analysis issues that cross-cut the four foci.

Author Keywords

Farmworker data collection Health outcomes Pesticide exposure Biomonitoring Environmental assessment

Index Keywords

information processing statistical analysis public health service methodology interpersonal communication agricultural worker human access to information medical research measurement Agriculture priority journal sensitivity analysis consensus development laboratory test Humans occupational exposure prediction reliability environmental exposure pesticide biological monitoring Pesticides Article chemical analysis biological marker data analysis outcome assessment Biological Markers job performance Data Collection
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-33745014767&doi=10.1289%2fehp.8531&partnerID=40&md5=b48826a5c58f4d849be252772c33fdf0
DOI: 10.1289/ehp.8531
ISSN: 00916765
Cited by: 45
Original Language: English