Farmworkers and Pesticide Exposure

[Guest guest]

Everyone,

We have recently received a couple of e-mails regarding the number of

farmworkers who are poisoned each year through exposure to pesticides.

I have included the following e-mail that Pawelski a grower in

New York state sent NCFH regarding this issue. I thought the e-group

would be a great forum to get responses back on this topic and to see

if anyone has further knowledge of the actual number of farmworkers

being poisoned each year via pesticides.

Josh Shepherd

Resource Center Manager

National Center for Farmworker Health

(512) 312-5463

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wanted to send this bit of research as an FYI. I'm still

working on it but I thought you might find what I have put together at

this point to be useful.

C.

The anatomy and evolution of a bogus factoid:

Recently I have come across a staggering claim regarding farmworkers

and pesticide exposure/poisoning. Based on my own anecdotal experiences

it's a claim so staggering I have a real hard time believing it. So, I

did a little research into it and I wanted to share what I found with

farmers and other interested parties.

Over the past few months I have found on the internet a number of

websites which state that an almost unbelievable number of farmworkers

in the U.S., 300,000, are injured or poisoned by pesticides. That's

300,000 poisoned each year, mind you. Most of these sites are somehow

connected with self-appointed farmworker advocates and their lobbying

activities or the anti-pesticide crowd. Here are just a few examples:

>From the United Church of Christ's website:

"Many farm workers are exposed to

pesticides in the fields. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates

300,000 farm workers nationwide are sickened each year by pesticides."

http://www.ucc.org/justice/boycotts/tbindepth.htm

Clarren's article "Fields of poison: while farmworkers are

sickened by pesticides industry writes the rules" (The Nation December

29, 2003 ) states:

"As many as 300,000 farmworkers

are injured annually by pesticides, and of these as many as 1,000 die,

according to the most recent available estimate from the Bureau of

Labor Statistics."

(The Nation does not have the article for free on its website but the

entire article can be found on the Environmental Working Group's

website):

http://www.ewg.org/news/story.php?id=2198

>From Gardenshare in NYS:

"Nationwide, some 300,000 are

injured by pesticides each year, and of these as many as 1,000 die."

http://www.gardenshare.org/

http://www.gardenshare.org/farmworkers.html

>From ERICDigests.org:

"The Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA) estimates that as many as 300,000 farmworkers suffer from

pesticide-related illnesses or injuries each year (USGAO, 1992)."

http://www.ericdigests.org/1997-4/labor.htm

>From FARMWORKERS IN OREGON: A Study of the League of Women Voters

of

Oregon Education Fund Fall 2000:

"Although both federal and state

laws require safety measures and equipment for those who handle

pesticides, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates

each year 300,000 farmworkers suffer acute pesticide poisoning in the

U.S."

http://www.open.org/~lwvor/Farmworkers2.htm

>From The International Relations Center publication "borderlines:"

"Over 1.2 billion pounds of

pesticides are used annually in U.S. agriculture, and according to a

1995 report published by the National Institute of Environmental Health

Sciences, these toxins are responsible for more than 300,000 illnesses

and 1,000 deaths in the farmworker community each year."

http://www.americaspolicy.org/borderlines/1998/bl49/bl49farm_body.html

>From Resist, Inc.:

"The major cause of farmworker

illness is poisoning from the 1.2 billion pounds of toxic pesticides

that are now used in the United States on virtually all commercial

crops. A 1995 report by the National Institute of Environmental Health

Sciences found that pesticides were responsible for more than 300,000

illnesses and 1,000 deaths among farmworkers each year. "

http://www.resistinc.org/newsletter/issues/1998/12/afpl.html

>From the Georgia Strait Alliance (notice they include Canadian

farmworkers, with no source citation):

"More than 300,000 Canadian and US

farmworkers are injured or made sick by pesticides every year."

http://www.georgiastrait.org/agrifood.php

>From the UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION of "PUBLIC COMMUNICATION on Labor

Law

Matters Arising in the United States submitted to the National

Administrative Office (NAO) of Mexico under the North American

Agreement on Labor ation (NAALC):"

"According to the U.S. Bureau of

Labor Statistics, farmworkers suffer the highest rate of

chemical-related illness of any occupational group: 5.5 per 1,000

workers. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that up to

300,000 farmworkers suffer acute illnesses from pesticide poisoning

each year."

http://laboris.uqam.ca/anact/applecomplaint.htm

>From Generation to Generation: The Health and Well-Being of

Children in

Immigrant Families (1998) Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences

and Education (which is found on the National Academies Press

website):

"For migrant farmworkers, pesticides are an ever-present danger, with

1.2 billion pounds of pesticides used in U.S. agriculture annually. The

Environmental Protection Agency estimates that as many as 300,000

farmworkers suffer from pesticide-related illnesses or injuries each

year (U.S. General Accounting Office, 1992). One New York study found

that one-third of the children interviewed who had worked in

agriculture the previous year had been injured by pesticides during

that time period (U.S. General Accounting Office, 1992)."

http://books.nap.edu/books/0309065615/html/74.html

>From Oxfam America (in their report Like Machines in the Fields:

Workers without Rights in American Agriculture):

"At work, farmworkers suffer

higher rate of toxic chemical injuries than workers in any other sector

of the U.S. economy, with an estimated 300,000 farmworkers suffering

pesticide poisonings each year."

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/pdfs/labor_report_04.pdf

>From a study done at Michigan State University:

"The Environmental Protection

Agency estimates that 300,000 farm workers suffer acute pesticide

poisoning each year."

http://www.polisci.msu.edu/kossek/migrantfarmworkers.pdf

>From the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education website (from

a

study entitled "NAFTA'S LABOR SIDE AGREEMENT: Fading into Oblivion? An

Assessment of Workplace Health & Safety Cases):

"And the EPA (1992) estimates that

nationally farm workers suffer up to 300,000 acute illnesses each year

as a result of pesticide exposure."

http://www.labor.ucla.edu/publications/nafta.pdf

>From PANNA's website in "Farmworkers Not Protected in U.S. Global

Pesticide Campaigner, February 1992. PANNA:"

"Testimony presented on July 17,

1991 before the U.S. House of Representatives' Select Committee on

Aging underscores what farmworkers and their advocates have known for

years: in the U.S., as in most other countries, farmworkers are

second-class citizens who suffer most directly from pesticide use.

ph Delfico of the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) presented

the following information: -- The EPA estimates that agricultural

workers suffer 20,000 to 300,000 acute pesticide illnesses and injuries

every year. (There is no national system for tracking pesticide

poisonings in the U.S.) "

http://www.panna.org/resources/pestis/PESTIS.burst.91.html

>From the National Center for Farmworker Health's website:

"The Environmental Protection

Agency estimates that 300,000 farmworkers suffer acute pesticide

poisoning each year."

http://www.ncfh.org/aaf_03.php

I could give example, after example, after example, after example,

after example, after example, after example, after example, after

example, after example, after example, after example, after example,

after example, after example, after example, ....

And you can find them too. Just go to Google (http://www.google.com)

and search the following:

300,000 injured pesticides "each

year" farm workers (or some other variation)

Wow, 300,000 farmworkers routinely injured in the U.S., each and every

year, by pesticides? And 1,000 die each year? But, is it true? So many

sources repeat this "fact" so many times, it must be true, right? I

mean, even governmental agencies are saying other governmental agencies

report this, so, it really must be true, right?

Well ..., maybe not.

First, when multiple different official governmental agencies are cited

as the "source" for an incredible sounding statistic warning bells

should go off, especially when it is merely a claim that some other

organization stated it.

Second, when no one ever accurately and thoroughly cites the actual

document/study/source, (including author, publication, date the

publication was published, page numbers, link to the study, etc...)

well, then warning bells should scream that something isn't right.

With warning bells "a ringing" I decided to do a little fact checking

of my own. I first contacted via e-mail the EPA's Office of Pesticide

Programs and they stated to me, in an e-mail, the following:

"Thank you for your inquiry about

the Environmental Protection Agency's estimate of farm workers

nationwide that are sickened each year by pesticides. EPA has never set

its estimate as high as 300,000 per year. We estimated previously,

based on physician-treated incidents, that 10,000 - 20,000 persons were

made ill by pesticides each year. We recognize that many experience

some symptoms but do not seek medical attention, but 300,000 seems too

high. We are currently in the process of revising our estimate, but the

number will not be as high as that cited on the UCC Web site."

Well, that throws out the bulk of the claims. But what about the Bureau

of Labor Statistics? I contacted the Bureau of Labor Statistics

regarding Clarren's quote and the e-mail reply from the BLS stated:

"Thank you for your interest in

data from the BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII).

I have searched through the recent Census of Fatal Occupational

Injuries (CFOI) as well as the SOII News Releases, and have not been

able to identify source of the data that you reference. I have also

searched through recent and past articles that have been published in

the BLS "Monthly Labor Review" and the "Compensation on Working

Conditions," and have not found a reference to this data. Without a

specific time, periodical, or article source reference, I cannot

determine where this data was cited. If you can provide more specific

source information, we may be able to help you with your request."

In a follow-up e-mail (which was in response to all the material I have

gathered and put together regarding this bogus "factoid") the BLS

stated:

"Thank you for providing the

additional information. After going over the material below, I have

found no source where the BLS printed the information referenced

below."

Well, that just leaves the National Institute of Environmental Health

Sciences. I also contacted the NIEHS and the researcher at the NIEHS

(who spent a great deal of time and effort into my information request)

stated:

"Bottom line - NIEHS never wrote

such a report claiming those statistics."

She added:

"However, I think the 300,000

number might be traced to one of two GAO reports. In a February 1992

report titled Hired farmworkers: health and well-being at risk

(http://161.203.16.4/t2pbat7/145941.pdf), the

GAO states on p. 3, 'The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which

regulates pesticides and their uses, estimates that each year hired

farmworkers suffer up to 300,000 acute illnesses and injuries from

exposure to pesticides.'

The second report published almost two years later in December 1993 has

a rather altered version. In Pesticides on Farms: Limited Capability

Exists to Monitor Occupational Illnesses and Injuries

(http://161.203.16.4/t2pbat4/150612.pdf) states

on p. 2, 'The national estimates of farmers, farmworkers, and their

families potentially exposed to pesticides range from 3.2 to 4 million

people. Such exposure is either direct, through application activities

(mixing, loading, flagging, and equipment maintenance operations), or

indirect, from contact with residues on treated crop fields. EPA

currently estimates that there are at least 20,000 illnesses associated

with the occupational use of pesticides on farms each year in this

country. Others have published estimates placing the number as high as

300,000.'

Sadly, neither of these reports cite either the EPA document or other

sources for the statistics. Since the EPA appears to be the main

governmental source on pesticide exposure, I attempted to track down

their numbers. In one such citation, a link was made to the EPA's

Summary of Risk-Benefit Analysis section of the then proposed Worker

Protection Standard (57 FR 38102; Vol. 57, No. 163 / Friday, August

21,1992). It unfortunately was extremely vague, saying only that the

'EPA estimates that at least tens of thousands of acute illnesses and

injuries and a less certain number of delayed onset illnesses occur

annually to agricultural employees as the result of occupational

exposures to pesticides used in the production of agricultural

plants.'"

As I researched this "factoid" I believe I found the initial "source"

for and the story behind this nonsense. It is detailed in the text of a

speech given by entomologist Dr. J. Gordon at Dartmouth College

on April 11, 1999. In the speech Dr. states:

"The EPA also falsely claimed, in

a radio broadcast (May 15, 1975), that 'hundreds of thousands of

American farm-workers are injured every year by pesticides, and

hundreds of them die annually as a result.' When challenged by actual

data, EPA meekly apologized, saying: 'We used those statements in good

faith, thinking they were accurate, and they turned out not to be

accurate.... They cannot possibly be substantiated' (UPI, May 24,

1975).

But what evidence could have led anyone to make such a claim?

{USA Today} (April 14, 1992) printed an editorial using that same

figure, and attributed it to 'a Congressional study last month.' I

wrote to the editors, pointing out that the statement actually came

from a World Resources Institute press release seven years earlier! I

quoted the two WRI researchers who made the study ( Wasserstrom

and Wiles) but quit because of the untruthful figure of 300,000

in that press release, which they said 'tells a story substantially

different from what we found' ({Chemical & Engineering News,}

September

1985).

The 300,000 figure was based on a report that 235 California

farm-workers had made medical complaints in 1982 (roughly half of the

complaints involved skin irritation from sulfur). Dr. Molly Coye

(NIOSH) extrapolated from 235 to 300,000 cases, as follows. Dr. Ephraim

Kahn had previously estimated that California doctors reported only

about 1% of such cases, so Molly Coye multiplied 235 by 100 and said

23,500 California workers must have actually had medical problems

because of pesticides during the year. That would be about 7.8% of

California farm-workers. Since there were about four million

farm-workers in the United States, she calculated 7.8% of 4 million, to

arrive at a total of 312,000 'poisoned' farm-workers each year. Dr.

Coye never mentioned Dr. Kahn's well-known, year-long study in 1977,

wherein he concluded that 80% of farm-worker illnesses are reported

(rather than his earlier estimate of 1%). As usual, {USA Today} did not

respond to my letter or the enclosed documentation of facts."

http://www.aboutsudan.com/issues/biological_holocaust/science_ddt_pesticides.htm

In a similar speech (entitled "EPA AND THE REASONABLE CERTAINTY OF NO

HARM: Prepared for address to Doctors for Disaster Preparedness") given

on June 6, 1999 in Seattle, Washington, Dr. added the

following:

"Based on the 80% level, the 235

California complaints would extrapolate to 300 California cases instead

of Coye's propaganda figure of 23,500 (and to less than 4,000 cases

nationwide, instead of 312,000)."

http://www.oism.org/ddp/epa.doc

Interestingly, an author behind one of the pieces I cited

above, in an e-mail response to issues raised by me, did produce one

EPA reference, sort of, for this "factoid." She stated, "here is one

source for this 300,000 reference that my co author Dr. Meece found."

The document is "Environmental Equity: Reducing Risk For All

Communities: Volume 1 : Workgroup Report To The Administrator" and this

is what it states:

"However, it is estimated that as

many as 313,000 farm workers experience pesticide related illnesses

each year, (Wasserstrom and' Wiles, 1985; Perfecto, 1990)."

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/publications/ej/reducing_risk_com_vol1.pdf

First, not to dismiss the value of this material, but, this was not a

scientific group conducting and reporting epidemiological research

connected with farmworkers and pesticide exposure. This was a social

science group, not necessarily experts in the field of epidemiology,

examining social science and policy issues surrounding "environmental

equity." The introduction to the Report stated "concerns have been

raised about the relative risk burden borne by low-income and racial

minority communities." It defined "environmental equity" as "the

examination of the differences in risk burden and how government

agencies respond" to the differences. That was the focus of this EPA

workgroup project. To emphasize, this was not an epidemiological work

or piece of research.

Second, the document does not state that the "EPA estimates" or the EPA

itself has found to be true that roughly 300,000 farm workers suffer

acute pesticide poisoning each year. It doesn't say that because, as

previously outlined, the EPA hasn't itself researched and reached that

estimate or conclusion. No, the document merely reports that another

source estimates "as many as 313,000 farm workers experience pesticide

related illnesses each year."

In fact, when you examine the end note in the EPA document it doesn't

even cite the original source of this information. The end note

actually states:

"Wasserstrom, R.F. and R. Wiles,

1985. Field Duty, U.S. Farm Workers and Pesticide Safety. World

Resources Institute, Center for Policy Research, Study 3. -As cited in:

I. Perfecto, 1990. "Pesticide Exposure of Farm Workers and the

International Connection"

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/publications/ej/reducing_risk_com_vol1.pdf

This is the study, "U.S. Farm Workers and Pesticide Safety," which was

the World Resources Institute study that Dr. referred to. It is

the original source. But the EPA document does not cite Wasserstrom and

Wiles's original research. No, it cites Dr. Ivette Perfecto's

work/citation ("As cited in:") of the initial World Resources

Institute's research.

So, what we in fact have here is a single EPA document, a non

epidemiological work, citing a piece of research which cites another

piece of research, which supposedly claimed roughly 300,000 farmworkers

are poisoned each year in the U.S. by pesticides. But, as previously

stated, according to the September 1985 issue of Chemical &

Engineering

News, the authors of that initial study, Wasserstrom and Wiles, felt

that the 300,000 claim "tells a story substantially different from what

was in the epidemiologic record" and they quit WRI over this

misrepresentation of the findings of the research.

Now, it took me all of an hour or two to find the bulk of this

information and to discern or find out the following:

a. The claim that "300,000 farm

workers nationwide are sickened each year by pesticides" is bogus.

b. No reputable government agency ever actually made that statement as

"cited" despite what all of these dubious sources claimed.

c. What the original source for this often repeated but untrue

"factoid" is.

Again, I was able to find all of the above, a, b, and c, in about an

hour or two of research, using only Google. And I am not a trained

journalist. And I am not a publication that is supposed to employ fact

checkers which supposedly check the accuracy of articles before

publication. And I don't have access to superior search engines like

Lexis-Nexis. And I'm not currently attending or employed by a college

or university writing a report that will be published and possibly peer

reviewed.

So, what is the excuse of all of these publications, journalists,

members of the academy and other sources for repeating this clearly

unsubstantiated "factoid?"

I guess the lesson here is that if a LIE (and that's what this is, a

lie) is repeated often enough, and no one really challenges the lie,

then the lie becomes a "factoid" or the truth. You see, it's easy to

lie about this as well. You can claim "300,00" get sick and then cover

it up with the claim that the injuries are grossly under reported. Of

course, the claim of gross under reporting of farmworker illnesses is

an easy lie to state as well, even though, as Dr. reports, it

has been refuted.

What's interesting though (and this doesn't seem to bother anyone) is

that though a staggering figure of 300,000 is used regarding

farmworkers injured by pesticides, it would appear an unusually low

number is used regarding deaths. "Roughly 1,000" is claimed frequently.

Of course this makes sense because though you can lie by stating

300,000 farmworkers are routinely poisoned by pesticides in the U.S.

each year, and you can back that lie with the equally unverifiable lie

that the number is so high because of gross under reporting of

farmworker illness, but it's hard to lie about deaths. You see, if you

claim that 5,000, or 10,000, or 20,000, or 40,000, or 60,000 or

whatever number of farmworkers die from pesticide injury each year,

well, you better produce the bodies to back the claim. And since it's

very hard to lie about dead bodies, you see the very low estimated

death count.

Of course, you could lie about the low death count by claiming

farmworkers are being secretly buried in unmarked graves across the

country, but, that might be one lie too hard to swallow.

But, given this crowd, I wouldn't be surprised to see that sort of lie

one day in the not so far future.

--

[Guest guest]

I may as well begin the discussion by identifying myself as the source of the

data from which people extrapolate. I work with the California Pesticide Illness

Surveillance Program, and supply extracts from our database to anyone who

requests them.

I found Mr. Pawelski's research impressively thorough, and wish he would

identify the source of the late, lamented Dr. Kahn's 1977 reevaluation. But I

wonder how he accepted the figure of 1000 deaths a year so easily. Death

certificates are all collected and coded by the National Center for Health

Statistics. A 1997 publication* reviewed that among other sources, and

identified a total of 341 pesticide fatalities over a six-year period, of which

64% were suicides. If our data are any measure, not many of the rest were

agricultural, either.

* Klein-Schwartz and , Agricultural and Horticultural Chemical Poisonings:

Mortality and Morbidity in the United States. ls of Emergency Medicine 1997

Feb;29(2):232-8.

>>> Josh Shepherd <shepherd@...> 01/07/05 08:00AM >>>

Everyone,

We have recently received a couple of e-mails regarding the number of

farmworkers who are poisoned each year through exposure to pesticides.

I have included the following e-mail that Pawelski a grower in New

York state sent NCFH regarding this issue. I thought the e-group would

be a great forum to get responses back on this topic and to see if

anyone has further knowledge of the actual number of farmworkers being

poisoned each year via pesticides.

Josh Shepherd

Resource Center Manager

National Center for Farmworker Health

(512) 312-5463

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\

--------------------------------------------------------

Wanted to send this bit of research as an FYI. I'm still working on it

but I thought you might find what I have put together at this point to

be useful.

C.

The anatomy and evolution of a bogus factoid:

Recently I have come across a staggering claim regarding farmworkers and

pesticide exposure/poisoning. Based on my own anecdotal experiences it's

a claim so staggering I have a real hard time believing it. So, I did a

little research into it and I wanted to share what I found with farmers

and other interested parties.

Over the past few months I have found on the internet a number of

websites which state that an almost unbelievable number of farmworkers

in the U.S., 300,000, are injured or poisoned by pesticides. That's

300,000 poisoned each year, mind you. Most of these sites are somehow

connected with self-appointed farmworker advocates and their lobbying

activities or the anti-pesticide crowd. Here are just a few examples:

>From the United Church of Christ's website:

" Many farm workers are exposed to pesticides in the fields. The

Environmental Protection Agency estimates 300,000 farm workers

nationwide are sickened each year by pesticides. "

http://www.ucc.org/justice/boycotts/tbindepth.htm

Clarren's article " Fields of poison: while farmworkers are

sickened by pesticides industry writes the rules " (The Nation December

29, 2003 ) states:

" As many as 300,000 farmworkers are injured annually by pesticides, and

of these as many as 1,000 die, according to the most recent available

estimate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "

(The Nation does not have the article for free on its website but the

entire article can be found on the Environmental Working Group's website):

http://www.ewg.org/news/story.php?id=2198

>From Gardenshare in NYS:

" Nationwide, some 300,000 are injured by pesticides each year, and of

these as many as 1,000 die. "

http://www.gardenshare.org/

http://www.gardenshare.org/farmworkers.html

>From ERICDigests.org:

" The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that as many as

300,000 farmworkers suffer from pesticide-related illnesses or injuries

each year (USGAO, 1992). "

http://www.ericdigests.org/1997-4/labor.htm

>From FARMWORKERS IN OREGON: A Study of the League of Women Voters of

Oregon Education Fund Fall 2000:

" Although both federal and state laws require safety measures and

equipment for those who handle pesticides, the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) estimates each year 300,000 farmworkers suffer

acute pesticide poisoning in the U.S. "

http://www.open.org/~lwvor/Farmworkers2.htm

>From The International Relations Center publication " borderlines: "

" Over 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides are used annually in U.S.

agriculture, and according to a 1995 report published by the National

Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, these toxins are responsible

for more than 300,000 illnesses and 1,000 deaths in the farmworker

community each year. "

http://www.americaspolicy.org/borderlines/1998/bl49/bl49farm_body.html

>From Resist, Inc.:

" The major cause of farmworker illness is poisoning from the 1.2 billion

pounds of toxic pesticides that are now used in the United States on

virtually all commercial crops. A 1995 report by the National Institute

of Environmental Health Sciences found that pesticides were responsible

for more than 300,000 illnesses and 1,000 deaths among farmworkers each

year. "

http://www.resistinc.org/newsletter/issues/1998/12/afpl.html

>From the Georgia Strait Alliance (notice they include Canadian

farmworkers, with no source citation):

" More than 300,000 Canadian and US farmworkers are injured or made sick

by pesticides every year. "

http://www.georgiastrait.org/agrifood.php

>From the UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION of " PUBLIC COMMUNICATION on Labor Law

Matters Arising in the United States submitted to the National

Administrative Office (NAO) of Mexico under the North American Agreement

on Labor ation (NAALC): "

" According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, farmworkers suffer

the highest rate of chemical-related illness of any occupational group:

5.5 per 1,000 workers. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

estimates that up to 300,000 farmworkers suffer acute illnesses from

pesticide poisoning each year. "

http://laboris.uqam.ca/anact/applecomplaint.htm

>From Generation to Generation: The Health and Well-Being of Children

in Immigrant Families (1998) Commission on Behavioral and Social

Sciences and Education (which is found on the National Academies Press

website):

" For migrant farmworkers, pesticides are an ever-present danger, with

1.2 billion pounds of pesticides used in U.S. agriculture annually. The

Environmental Protection Agency estimates that as many as 300,000

farmworkers suffer from pesticide-related illnesses or injuries each

year (U.S. General Accounting Office, 1992). One New York study found

that one-third of the children interviewed who had worked in agriculture

the previous year had been injured by pesticides during that time period

(U.S. General Accounting Office, 1992). "

http://books.nap.edu/books/0309065615/html/74.html

>From Oxfam America (in their report Like Machines in the Fields:

Workers without Rights in American Agriculture):

" At work, farmworkers suffer higher rate of toxic chemical injuries than

workers in any other sector of the U.S. economy, with an estimated

300,000 farmworkers suffering pesticide poisonings each year. "

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/pdfs/labor_report_04.pdf

>From a study done at Michigan State University:

" The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 300,000 farm workers

suffer acute pesticide poisoning each year. "

http://www.polisci.msu.edu/kossek/migrantfarmworkers.pdf

>From the UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education website (from a

study entitled " NAFTA'S LABOR SIDE AGREEMENT: Fading into Oblivion? An

Assessment of Workplace Health & Safety Cases):

" And the EPA (1992) estimates that nationally farm workers suffer up to

300,000 acute illnesses each year as a result of pesticide exposure. "

http://www.labor.ucla.edu/publications/nafta.pdf

>From PANNA's website in " Farmworkers Not Protected in U.S. Global

Pesticide Campaigner, February 1992. PANNA: "

" Testimony presented on July 17, 1991 before the U.S. House of

Representatives' Select Committee on Aging underscores what farmworkers

and their advocates have known for years: in the U.S., as in most other

countries, farmworkers are second-class citizens who suffer most

directly from pesticide use. ph Delfico of the U.S. General

Accounting Office (GAO) presented the following information: -- The EPA

estimates that agricultural workers suffer 20,000 to 300,000 acute

pesticide illnesses and injuries every year. (There is no national

system for tracking pesticide poisonings in the U.S.) "

http://www.panna.org/resources/pestis/PESTIS.burst.91.html

>From the National Center for Farmworker Health's website:

" The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 300,000 farmworkers

suffer acute pesticide poisoning each year. "

http://www.ncfh.org/aaf_03.php

I could give example, after example, after example, after example, after

example, after example, after example, after example, after example,

after example, after example, after example, after example, after

example, after example, after example, ....

And you can find them too. Just go to Google (http://www.google.com) and

search the following:

300,000 injured pesticides " each year " farm workers (or some other

variation)

Wow, 300,000 farmworkers routinely injured in the U.S., each and every

year, by pesticides? And 1,000 die each year? But, is it true? So many

sources repeat this " fact " so many times, it must be true, right? I

mean, even governmental agencies are saying other governmental agencies

report this, so, it really must be true, right?

Well ..., maybe not.

First, when multiple different official governmental agencies are cited

as the " source " for an incredible sounding statistic warning bells

should go off, especially when it is merely a claim that some other

organization stated it.

Second, when no one ever accurately and thoroughly cites the actual

document/study/source, (including author, publication, date the

publication was published, page numbers, link to the study, etc...)

well, then warning bells should scream that something isn't right.

With warning bells " a ringing " I decided to do a little fact checking of

my own. I first contacted via e-mail the EPA's Office of Pesticide

Programs and they stated to me, in an e-mail, the following:

" Thank you for your inquiry about the Environmental Protection Agency's

estimate of farm workers nationwide that are sickened each year by

pesticides. EPA has never set its estimate as high as 300,000 per year.

We estimated previously, based on physician-treated incidents, that

10,000 - 20,000 persons were made ill by pesticides each year. We

recognize that many experience some symptoms but do not seek medical

attention, but 300,000 seems too high. We are currently in the process

of revising our estimate, but the number will not be as high as that

cited on the UCC Web site. "

Well, that throws out the bulk of the claims. But what about the Bureau

of Labor Statistics? I contacted the Bureau of Labor Statistics

regarding Clarren's quote and the e-mail reply from the BLS stated:

" Thank you for your interest in data from the BLS Survey of Occupational

Injuries and Illnesses (SOII). I have searched through the recent Census

of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) as well as the SOII News Releases,

and have not been able to identify source of the data that you

reference. I have also searched through recent and past articles that

have been published in the BLS " Monthly Labor Review " and the

" Compensation on Working Conditions, " and have not found a reference to

this data. Without a specific time, periodical, or article source

reference, I cannot determine where this data was cited. If you can

provide more specific source information, we may be able to help you

with your request. "

In a follow-up e-mail (which was in response to all the material I have

gathered and put together regarding this bogus " factoid " ) the BLS stated:

" Thank you for providing the additional information. After going over

the material below, I have found no source where the BLS printed the

information referenced below. "

Well, that just leaves the National Institute of Environmental Health

Sciences. I also contacted the NIEHS and the researcher at the NIEHS

(who spent a great deal of time and effort into my information request)

stated:

" Bottom line - NIEHS never wrote such a report claiming those statistics. "

She added:

" However, I think the 300,000 number might be traced to one of two GAO

reports. In a February 1992 report titled Hired farmworkers: health and

well-being at risk (http://161.203.16.4/t2pbat7/145941.pdf), the GAO

states on p. 3, 'The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which

regulates pesticides and their uses, estimates that each year hired

farmworkers suffer up to 300,000 acute illnesses and injuries from

exposure to pesticides.'

The second report published almost two years later in December 1993 has

a rather altered version. In Pesticides on Farms: Limited Capability

Exists to Monitor Occupational Illnesses and Injuries

(http://161.203.16.4/t2pbat4/150612.pdf) states on p. 2, 'The national

estimates of farmers, farmworkers, and their families potentially

exposed to pesticides range from 3.2 to 4 million people. Such exposure

is either direct, through application activities (mixing, loading,

flagging, and equipment maintenance operations), or indirect, from

contact with residues on treated crop fields. EPA currently estimates

that there are at least 20,000 illnesses associated with the

occupational use of pesticides on farms each year in this country.

Others have published estimates placing the number as high as 300,000.'

Sadly, neither of these reports cite either the EPA document or other

sources for the statistics. Since the EPA appears to be the main

governmental source on pesticide exposure, I attempted to track down , i

their numbers. In one such citation, a link was made to the EPA's

Summary of Risk-Benefit Analysis section of the then proposed Worker

Protection Standard (57 FR 38102; Vol. 57, No. 163 / Friday, August

21,1992). It unfortunately was extremely vague, saying only that the

'EPA estimates that at least tens of thousands of acute illnesses and

injuries and a less certain number of delayed onset illnesses occur

annually to agricultural employees as the result of occupational

exposures to pesticides used in the production of agricultural plants.' "

As I researched this " factoid " I believe I found the initial " source "

for and the story behind this nonsense. It is detailed in the text of a

speech given by entomologist Dr. J. Gordon at Dartmouth College

on April 11, 1999. In the speech Dr. states:

" The EPA also falsely claimed, in a radio broadcast (May 15, 1975), that

'hundreds of thousands of American farm-workers are injured every year

by pesticides, and hundreds of them die annually as a result.' When

challenged by actual data, EPA meekly apologized, saying: 'We used those

statements in good faith, thinking they were accurate, and they turned

out not to be accurate.... They cannot possibly be substantiated' (UPI,

May 24, 1975).

But what evidence could have led anyone to make such a claim? {USA

Today} (April 14, 1992) printed an editorial using that same figure, and

attributed it to 'a Congressional study last month.' I wrote to the

editors, pointing out that the statement actually came from a World

Resources Institute press release seven years earlier! I quoted the two

WRI researchers who made the study ( Wasserstrom and

Wiles) but quit because of the untruthful figure of 300,000 in that

press release, which they said 'tells a story substantially different

from what we found' ({Chemical & Engineering News,} September 1985).

The 300,000 figure was based on a report that 235 California

farm-workers had made medical complaints in 1982 (roughly half of the

complaints involved skin irritation from sulfur). Dr. Molly Coye (NIOSH)

extrapolated from 235 to 300,000 cases, as follows. Dr. Ephraim Kahn had

previously estimated that California doctors reported only about 1% of

such cases, so Molly Coye multiplied 235 by 100 and said 23,500

California workers must have actually had medical problems because of

pesticides during the year. That would be about 7.8% of California

farm-workers. Since there were about four million farm-workers in the

United States, she calculated 7.8% of 4 million, to arrive at a total of

312,000 'poisoned' farm-workers each year. Dr. Coye never mentioned Dr.

Kahn's well-known, year-long study in 1977, wherein he concluded that

80% of farm-worker illnesses are reported (rather than his earlier

estimate of 1%). As usual, {USA Today} did not respond to my letter or

the enclosed documentation of facts. "

http://www.aboutsudan.com/issues/biological_holocaust/science_ddt_pesticides.htm

In a similar speech (entitled " EPA AND THE REASONABLE CERTAINTY OF NO

HARM: Prepared for address to Doctors for Disaster Preparedness " ) given

on June 6, 1999 in Seattle, Washington, Dr. added the following:

" Based on the 80% level, the 235 California complaints would extrapolate

to 300 California cases instead of Coye's propaganda figure of 23,500

(and to less than 4,000 cases nationwide, instead of 312,000). "

http://www.oism.org/ddp/epa.doc

Interestingly, an author behind one of the pieces I cited above, in an

e-mail response to issues raised by me, did produce one EPA reference,

sort of, for this " factoid. " She stated, " here is one source for this

300,000 reference that my co author Dr. Meece found. " The document is

" Environmental Equity: Reducing Risk For All Communities: Volume 1 :

Workgroup Report To The Administrator " and this is what it states:

" However, it is estimated that as many as 313,000 farm workers

experience pesticide related illnesses each year, (Wasserstrom and'

Wiles, 1985; Perfecto, 1990). "

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/publications/ej/reducing_risk_com_vol1.p\

df

First, not to dismiss the value of this material, but, this was not a

scientific group conducting and reporting epidemiological research

connected with farmworkers and pesticide exposure. This was a social

science group, not necessarily experts in the field of epidemiology,

examining social science and policy issues surrounding " environmental

equity. " The introduction to the Report stated " concerns have been

raised about the relative risk burden borne by low-income and racial

minority communities. " It defined " environmental equity " as " the

examination of the differences in risk burden and how government

agencies respond " to the differences. That was the focus of this EPA

workgroup project. To emphasize, this was not an epidemiological work or

piece of research.

Second, the document does not state that the " EPA estimates " or the EPA

itself has found to be true that roughly 300,000 farm workers suffer

acute pesticide poisoning each year. It doesn't say that because, as

previously outlined, the EPA hasn't itself researched and reached that

estimate or conclusion. No, the document merely reports that another

source estimates " as many as 313,000 farm workers experience pesticide

related illnesses each year. "

In fact, when you examine the end note in the EPA document it doesn't

even cite the original source of this information. The end note actually

states:

" Wasserstrom, R.F. and R. Wiles, 1985. Field Duty, U.S. Farm Workers and

Pesticide Safety. World Resources Institute, Center for Policy Research,

Study 3. -As cited in: I. Perfecto, 1990. " Pesticide Exposure of Farm

Workers and the International Connection "

http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/publications/ej/reducing_risk_com_vol1.p\

df

This is the study, " U.S. Farm Workers and Pesticide Safety, " which was

the World Resources Institute study that Dr. referred to. It is

the original source. But the EPA document does not cite Wasserstrom and

Wiles's original research. No, it cites Dr. Ivette Perfecto's

work/citation ( " As cited in: " ) of the initial World Resources

Institute's research.

So, what we in fact have here is a single EPA document, a non

epidemiological work, citing a piece of research which cites another

piece of research, which supposedly claimed roughly 300,000 farmworkers

are poisoned each year in the U.S. by pesticides. But, as previously

stated, according to the September 1985 issue of Chemical & Engineering

News, the authors of that initial study, Wasserstrom and Wiles, felt

that the 300,000 claim " tells a story substantially different from what

was in the epidemiologic record " and they quit WRI over this

misrepresentation of the findings of the research.

Now, it took me all of an hour or two to find the bulk of this

information and to discern or find out the following:

a. The claim that " 300,000 farm workers nationwide are sickened each

year by pesticides " is bogus.

b. No reputable government agency ever actually made that statement as

" cited " despite what all of these dubious sources claimed.

c. What the original source for this often repeated but untrue " factoid "

is.

Again, I was able to find all of the above, a, b, and c, in about an

hour or two of research, using only Google. And I am not a trained

journalist. And I am not a publication that is supposed to employ fact

checkers which supposedly check the accuracy of articles before

publication. And I don't have access to superior search engines like

Lexis-Nexis. And I'm not currently attending or employed by a college or

university writing a report that will be published and possibly peer

reviewed.

So, what is the excuse of all of these publications, journalists,

members of the academy and other sources for repeating this clearly

unsubstantiated " factoid? "

I guess the lesson here is that if a LIE (and that's what this is, a

lie) is repeated often enough, and no one really challenges the lie,

then the lie becomes a " factoid " or the truth. You see, it's easy to lie

about this as well. You can claim " 300,00 " get sick and then cover it up

with the claim that the injuries are grossly under reported. Of course,

the claim of gross under reporting of farmworker illnesses is an easy

lie to state as well, even though, as Dr. reports, it has been

refuted.

What's interesting though (and this doesn't seem to bother anyone) is

that though a staggering figure of 300,000 is used regarding farmworkers

injured by pesticides, it would appear an unusually low number is used

regarding deaths. " Roughly 1,000 " is claimed frequently. Of course this

makes sense because though you can lie by stating 300,000 farmworkers

are routinely poisoned by pesticides in the U.S. each year, and you can

back that lie with the equally unverifiable lie that the number is so

high because of gross under reporting of farmworker illness, but it's

hard to lie about deaths. You see, if you claim that 5,000, or 10,000,

or 20,000, or 40,000, or 60,000 or whatever number of farmworkers die

from pesticide injury each year, well, you better produce the bodies to

back the claim. And since it's very hard to lie about dead bodies, you

see the very low estimated death count.

Of course, you could lie about the low death count by claiming

farmworkers are being secretly buried in unmarked graves across the

country, but, that might be one lie too hard to swallow.

But, given this crowd, I wouldn't be surprised to see that sort of lie

one day in the not so far future.

Chris

--

[Guest guest]

There is no simple answer to the question of how many farmworkers are

poisoned by pesticides, because there is no national pesticide incident

reporting system. In any case, incident reporting systems at best

capture the tip of the iceberg of acute poisonings. Nonetheless, there

is good news on this front. The EPA has now agreed to establish a

national incident reporting system, based on existing programs. This

will probably be launched in 2005 or 2006. Please paraticipate by

reporting incidents.

No on to the data that we do have. Here is some:

EPA estimates 10,000 – 20,000 cases of physician diagnosed

pesticide-related illness among farmworkers each year (EPA, WPS

Economic Impact Statement 1993).

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that farm workers suffer the

highest rate of chemical-related illness of any occupational group: 5.5

per 1,000 workers. 52 Fed. Reg. 16,050, 16,059 (1987).

Based on 468 cases from SENSOR program in 7 states, NIOSH found an

incidence rate of 18.2 per 100,000 agricultural workers (Calvert et al.,

Acute Occupational Pesticide-related Illnesses in the U.S., 1998-1999:

Surveillance Findings from the SENSOR – Pesticides Program, by Amer.

Journal of Industrial Med, 45:14-23 (2004).

In CA, there were 1,316 confirmed cases in 2002, of which 702 (53%)

occurred in agriculture.

Between 1993-1996, 63,000 reports of unintentional exposure to

organophosphate insecticides were received by US poison control centers;

nearly 25,000 of which related to children under age 6

CALIFORNIA INCIDENT REPORTS 1995 – 2002

YR TOTAL REPORTED CASES CASES AT LEAST POSSIBLY RELATED TO PESTICIDES

AGRICULTURE USE

2002 1,859 1,316 702 (53%)

2001 979 616 192 (31%)

2000 1,144 893 417 (47%)

1999 1,629 1,201 555 (46%)

1998 1,481 998 336 (37%)

1997 1,806 1,319 545 (41%)

1996 2,229 1,580 696 (44%)

1995 2,401 1,593 656 (41%)