REPORT SHOWS JUMP IN PESTICIDE ILLNESS.Byline: Daily News Staff and Wire Services The number of potential or confirmed illnesses related to pesticide pesticide, biological, physical, or chemical agent used to kill plants or animals that are harmful to people; in practice, the term pesticide is often applied only to chemical agents. use in Ventura County increased during 1996 from the year before, state officials reported Tuesday. Of the 51 pesticide-related illnesses reported in 1996, 42 were agricultural and nine were nonagricultural. That compares with 20 agricultural and 19 nonagricultural pesticide illnesses the previous year. Statewide, the Department of Pesticide Regulation said 1,580 cases were reported during 1996, the latest year for which figures are available. Some 56 percent of the cases, or 884 illness reports, were nonagricultural, while the remainder involved pesticide use on farms. In 1995, a total of 1,593 cases was reported. The state said one-third of the 1996 farm-related illnesses occurred in one event in Kern Kern, river, 155 mi (249 km) long, rising in the S Sierra Nevada Mts., E Calif., and flowing south, then southwest to a reservoir in the extreme southern part of the San Joaquin valley. The river has Isabella Dam as its chief facility. County, when a crop duster crop duster Usually, an aircraft used for dusting or spraying large acreages with pesticides, though other types of dusters are also employed. Aerial spraying and dusting permit prompt coverage of large areas at the moment when application of pesticide is most effective and sprayed a cotton field next to a vineyard vineyard, land on which cultivation of the grape—known as viticulture—takes place. As many as 40 varieties of grape, Vitis vinifera, are known. where hundreds of harvesters were working. Some 243 workers received medical tests; most complained of headaches, nausea and eye irritation. The crop-dusting company was fined and subjected to license penalties. Among California's 58 counties, Kern had the highest number of pesticide-illness cases during 1996, with 291. Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County was second with 157, and Fresno County was third with 131. |
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