Health Department report on Immokalee birth defects cases

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Health Department Issues a Report on Birth Defect Cases in Immokalee, FL.

Florida Agriculture Deparment Fines Company for Pesticide

Violations.

On October 12, 2005, the Collier County Department of Health (CCDH)

released its investigative report on the three babies born with severe

birth defects to farmworker women employed by Ag Mart in Immokalee,

Florida. The three babies were born between December 2004 and

February 2005. One has a cleft lip and small jaw (known as Pierre Robin’s

syndrome), a second had multiple deformations and died within a few days

and the third was born with no arms or legs.

CCDH conducted a review of babies born in Immokalee between December 2004

and February 2005, to determine if they had birth defects due to exposure

to agricultural pesticides. Of the five babies with birth defects born in

that time frame, two had no possible exposure to agricultural chemicals

and were eliminated from further study. In analyzing the possible

environmental exposures to the three remaining babies, CCDH focused its

assessment on the critical period of gestation, between 19 and 60 days

after conception, when limbs and body structures are developing. During

this critical timeframe, according to CCDH, two of the three mothers were

exposed to agricultural pesticides that have been associated with birth

defects in animal studies. Even though both these mothers were exposed to

possibly teratogenic pesticides and many of these exposures occurred

before it was safe to re-enter pesticide treated fields (i.e., before the

required restricted entry interval had expired), CCDH concluded that it

was unlikely that these effects were due to pesticide exposure. In

reaching this conclusion, CDOH noted that generally health professionals

are able to identify a case of only about 35% of birth defect cases (25%

due to genetic causes and 10% from environmental causes). It was unlikely

that the effects were due to an environmental cause. In reaching this

conclusion, CDOH noted that the three cases involved different birth

defects, that one of the mothers allegedly had no exposures during the

critical time period and that while the birth defects rates in Collier

County and Immokalee were higher than the state as a whole (28% and 33%

higher respectively), this could be due to the small numbers of cases in

those jurisdictions.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services found that Ag

Mart had committed 88 violations of preharvest intervals and restricted

entry intervals during th time period at issue and fined the company

$111,000.

, Deputy Directorof the Farmworker Justice Fund Inc. noted

that CDOH conducted only a cursory investigation and that a more

comprehensive study should be undertaken to identify the likely causes of

these severe birth defect cases. The flaws in the CDOH study include the

following:

To identify a trend in the incidence of birth defects, CDOH should

have looked at a broader time frame. Finding a trend in a three-month

time window was extremely unlikely from the outset. A fuller investigation should have compared birth defect cases in

Immokalee and other agricultural areas to the number of cases in urban

areas in the state. By looking at a narrow three-month timeframe, CDOH ignored the birth

of a fourth farmworker baby born in Immokalee with a cleft palate in the

summer of 2005. CCDH accepted Ag Mart’s records of employment and pesticide

application without question even though one of the farmworker moms

disputes the dates of her employment with the company. This controversy

is not even mentioned, nor are any reasons given for ignoring the

mother’s account. If the mother’s account had been credited, she would

have had exposure to the possibly teratogenic pesticides during the

critical period of gestation. An acute exposure to one of the farmworker dad’s is dismissed because

no incident report was filed. Given that pesticide incidents are widely

underreported, this was an inappropriate conclusion. Given that at least two of the mothers were exposed to potentially

teratogenic pesticides during a critical time of gestation – and that

these exposures occurred before the expiration of the restricted entry

interval – an analysis should have been conducted of the likely amount of

exposure (i.e., dose). There is no discussion of the extent of exposure. Paternal exposures and the possibility of take home exposures to the

moms was ignored. The poor pesticide safety record of this company was not mentioned.

Only the farmworker parents were interviewed. Other Ag Mart workers

should have been interviewed concerning the extent of pesticide safety

violations on that farm.

also praised Ag Mart for eliminating the use of five potentially

teratogenic pesticides beginning in October 2005, but urged the company

to eliminate the use of methyl bromide as well. She also urged other

tomato growers to eliminate the use of such highly toxic pesticides in

their operations. Finally, criticized the Florida Department of

Health for its failure to undertake a comprehensive investigation of

birth defect trends in Florida or to enlist the assistance of the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention or the National Institute of

Occupational Safety and Health in comprehensively investigating these

severe birth defects cases. “The actions FDOH and CCDH propose to take

are wholly inadequate to identify likely causes of birth defects among

farmworkers in that state,” said .

Deputy Director

Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc.

1010 Vermont Avenue N.W.

Suite 915

Washington, DC 20005

202-783-2628 Voice

202-783-2561 Fax

www.fwjustice.org

sdavis@...