Dangerous Exposure: Farmworker Children and Pesticides

Children of farmworkers bear a disproportionate burden of health effects from pesticide use in our country. Birth defects, neurological complications, respiratory illness, and cancers have all been linked by peer-reviewed research to pesticide exposure in children. This publication reviews research found on the effects of pesticides on these four areas related to children’s health. The information compiled here is a tool for consumers, policy-makers, health and safety trainers, advocates, those who serve farmworkers, and those who benefit daily from their hard work.

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Biomarkers of Farmworker Pesticide Exposure in North Carolina

This policy brief documents farmworker pesticide exposure during the 2007 agricultural season in North Carolina. Based on these results, we present recommendations to improve safety and sanitation conditions for farmworkers. Urine samples were collected by Wake Forest University School of Medicine investigators from 284 farmworkers at monthly intervals during the period of May through August 2007. A total of 939 urine samples were provided by farmworkers and analyzed for pesticide urinary metabolites by the National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta.

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Repeated Pesticide Exposure Among North Carolina Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers

Migrant and seasonal farmworker occupational exposure to pesticides is widely acknowledged, and this occupational pesticide exposure is considered an important health risk for farmworkers and their families. However, no published biomarker data document the number or percent of US farmworkers exposed to pesticides.

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Job Demands and Pesticide Exposure Among Immigrant Latino Farmworkers

The goal of this study was to understand the potential threat of job stressors to farmworker health. To accomplish this goal we studied pesticide exposure, an issue with immediate and long-term health consequences, and predictions from the Demands-Control model of occupational stress.

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