Gaps in Pesticide Reporting Lead to Underestimates of Risk.The "Spheres of Influence" article on pesticide safety for farm workers (1) raises important issues, including the likelihood that reports of pesticide illness and injury currently underestimate the real impacts on farmworker health. The discussion of this underreporting misses, however, what may be the most serious deficiency in estimating pesticide impacts on health--that no reporting system is ever likely to fully accommodate pesticide-related health impacts that are not pesticide-specific and that are often delayed. For example, in clinical practice, even when they occur, adverse impacts on immune system immune system Cells, cell products, organs, and structures of the body involved in the detection and destruction of foreign invaders, such as bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Immunity is based on the system's ability to launch a defense against such invaders. function are unlikely ever to be definitively linked to pesticide exposures, except in rare cases. Many studies now establish that a diverse number of pesticides and other contaminants can alter immune system function, potentially rendering people more susceptible to infectious agents, allergies, or autoimmune diseases Autoimmune diseases A group of diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, in which immune cells turn on the body, attacking various tissues and organs. Mentioned in: Complement Deficiencies, Premature Menopause (2-4). These illnesses, if reported at all, are assigned to disease categories that fail to reflect causes of this increased vulnerability. Few physicians who treat patients with these conditions are likely to consider the possible contributory role of pesticide exposures. For research purposes, only rigorous, prospective epidemiologic studies with accurate exposure assessments are likely to uncover this potential link. These limits to a pesticide-illness reporting system profoundly restrict efforts to gauge the real health costs of pesticide exposure, not just for farming families but for all people who are exposed. Increased research and screening for impacts of pesticide exposure on the immune system are needed to ensure that our understanding of the costs and benefits of pesticide use is not biased by limited disease surveillance systems in which certain types of harm predictably will not be documented. REFERENCES AND NOTES (1.) Taylor DA. Spheres of Influence: A new crop of concerns: Congress investigates pesticide safety. Environ Health Perspect 108:A408-A411 (2000). (2.) Repetto R, Baliga S. Pesticides and the Immune System: The Public Health Risks. Washington, DC:World Resources Institute Founded in 1982, the World Resources Institute (WRI) is an environmental think tank based in Washington, D.C. WRI is an independent, non-partisan and nonprofit organization with a staff of more than 100 scientists, economists, policy experts, business analysts, statistical , 1996. (3.) Chemically-induced Alterations in the Developing Immune System: The Wildlife/Human Connection. Environ Health Perspect 104 (suppl 4):805-842 (1996). (4.) Rothman N, Cantor KP, Blair A, Bush D, Brock JW, Helzlsouer K, Zahm SH, Needham LL, Pearson GR, Hoover RN, et al. A nested case-control study A nested case-control study is a type of study design where new case controls are applied into cohorts which were defined before the study begins. Compared with case-control study, nested case-control study can reduce 'recall bias' and temporal ambiguity, and compared with of non-Hodgkin lymphoma Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) describes a group of cancers arising from lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell. It is distinct from Hodgkin lymphoma in its pathologic features, epidemiology, common sites of involvement, clinical behavior, and treatment. and serum organochlorine or·gan·o·chlo·rine n. Any of various hydrocarbon pesticides, such as DDT, that contain chlorine. residues. The Lancet 350:240-244 (1997). John Peterson Myers W. Alton Jones Foundation Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville is an independent city located within the confines of Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of King George III of the United Kingdom. E-mail: jpmyers@wajones.org Ted Schettler Science and Environmental Health Network Boston, Massachusetts “Boston” redirects here. For other uses, see Boston (disambiguation). Boston is the capital and most populous city of Massachusetts.[3] The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the unofficial economic and cultural center of the entire New E-mail: tschettler@igc.org |
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