Field laborers who apply toxic pesticides to crops can now breathe easier, a result of the Farm Worker Health Act signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sept. 27.
Authored by Assemblymember Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara), chair of the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials, the legislation—also known as AB 1963—addresses workers who handle organophosphates and carbamates, chemicals known to inhibit a critical nerve enzyme called cholinesterase (ChE). The legislation will require labs and employers to report results of mandated ChE tests directly to state health agencies: the Department of Pesticide Regulation, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and the Department of Public Health.
The measure was co-sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, the California Health Officers Association, and the Pesticide Action Network of North America.
Margaret Reeves, senior scientist at the Pesticide Action Network of North America, said her organization has been working on the legislation since 2007.
“I was delighted that [Nava] picked this up,” Reeves said. “He’s a real champion of farm-worker issues.”
According to Reeves, the Act focuses on organophosphates because they’re “highly acutely toxic,” easy to test for, and popular. The chemicals are used in a number of insecticides and typically sprayed on crops.
In Santa Barbara County, the most commonly used organophosphate is malathion, a controversial insecticide sprayed primarily on strawberries. In 2008, county growers treated 45,630 acres with the chemical.
Another organophosphate insecticide, chlorpyrifos, was formerly used as a termite killer in homes until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned it for domestic use in 2001, due to known health hazards for children. However, chlorpyrifos is still allowed in agriculture, and was applied on 26,172 acres of county crops in 2008.
Other such chemicals used on local fields include oxydemeton-methyl, applied on 17,283 acres, mostly on broccoli; Naled, used on 10,325 acres of strawberries; and Acephate, Bensulide, and Diazinon, three chemicals used on more than 20,000 acres of lettuce combined.
According to Reeves, cholinesterase inhibitors can result in a number of long-term neurological effects, but scientists are most concerned with the impact of exposure on children. Reeves said recent studies have linked organophosphates with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Parkinson’s disease.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently in the process of considering re-registration for chlorpyrifos. In a letter scheduled to be sent to the EPA on Oct. 13, 13,000 individuals and organizations from across the country called on the agency to ban the chemical and phase out other organophosphate pesticides.
“You have stated that protecting children and addressing environmental justice issues are top priorities for EPA,” the letter reads. “Allowing continued use of chlorpyrifos in agriculture is antithetical to these priorities, causing disproportionate harm to farm worker populations, and in particular to farm worker children.”
In passing the Farm Worker Health Act, California follows the lead of the state of Washington, which implemented a similar medical monitoring program in 2006. It will enforce an already existing state supervision program, enacted in 1974, which required employers to test cholinesterase levels in workers. At the time, electronic monitoring wasn’t possible, and test results weren’t required to be delivered to any state agency.
According to Department of Pesticide Regulation spokeswoman Lea Brooks, the agency had received only fragmented information on results and hasn’t been able to determine the effectiveness of the monitoring program. However, she said, statistics have indicated a reduction in organophosphate use over the years.
“Use of products targeted by AB 1963
has decreased, and the incidence of severe toxicity has dropped even more,” Brooks wrote in an e-mail. “Of the few cases that continue to occur (0 to 5 per year identified from 2001 through 2007), the great majority involves accidental or deliberate ingestion of the pesticide.”
Under the legislation’s requirements, all farm workers who apply and handle organophosphates will take simple blood tests to establish baseline ChE levels and will be retested periodically to see if their enzyme levels drop by a certain percentage. If so, employers will be obligated to intervene.
Brooks said clinical labs would send test results electronically to the agency, which will maintain a database of the information and share it with the Office of Health Hazard Assessment and the Department of Public Health.
According to Brooks, by Dec. 31, 2015, the three agencies will submit a public report to the state legislature, evaluating the effectiveness of the reporting system. The report will also include recommendations to extend, expand, or disband the program.
In the meantime, employers will be required to keep testing records, although as a result of compromise in the bill, there’s no penalty for employers who don’t submit test results.
About 200 pesticides are currently
listed by the national Centers for Disease Control as potentially harmful chemicals to watch, but according to Pesticide Watch’s Reeves, there’s no plan to expand the Farm Worker Health Act’s requirements to include more chemicals, due to a lack of labs and cost-effective methods for testing other pesticides.
With the new law, Reeves said, regulators will at least be able to find out how many people get tested and how often levels are reduced, and will be able to ensure growers are taking action to reduce exposure.
“We won’t be able to know if they’re doing things better now than they did before, but we’ll be able to see the results generated by the program,” Reeves said. “It will allow us for the first time to actually see if the program is working. This is all about preventing poisoning, not waiting until they’re already poisoned.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas can be contacted at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 14-21, 2010.