Worker reentry safety. VII. A medical overview of reentry periods and the use of urinary alkyl phosphates in human pesticide monitoring.

Abstract

Physicians working in rural areas would be the first to acknowledge the limited quality of care available to the agricultural worker. Occupational health specialists, too, would agree that the implementation of conventional occupational health practices in agriculture is at best fragmentary and at worst in some areas practically nonexistent. Farming today is highly mechanized and has become an occupation with numerous attendant hazards. Occupational pesticide poisoning is one of the more important of these hazards and one which has not been adequately categorized. Systemic pesticide poisoning and exposure are the result either of pesticide applicational process or the result of the thinning or picking processes. In the former, the worker at some time or other comes into contact with the pesticide concentrate and illness results either because of accidental spillage malpractice or inadequate protection. Resultant illness is usually severe, rapid on onset, and usually singly. The case fatality rate is higher in applicator poisoning than in picker poisoning. Applicator poisoning has been observed in loaders, sprayers, formulators, and manufacturers. The second category occurs as a result of work contact with the diluted pesticide on the foliage. Illnesses are milder, occur in clusters, are more common in dry and more arid areas, and the case fatality rate is low. The phenomenon is seen in workers who are picking or thinning crops and the illness is called “picker or thinning poisoning.”