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AgHealthNews

Issue Number 2002-01
Winter 2002

2002-01-01 Table of Contents

2002-01-02 Welcome and Introduction

2002-01-03 Center Investigator to Help Develop Mexico's Train-the-Trainer Program

2002-01-04 New Name, And Renewed Funding For The Next Five Years

2002-01-05 Center Awards $26,800 in Research Funding to UC Davis Graduate Students

2002-01-06 NIOSH Publishes New Documents on Childhood Agricultural Injuries

2002-01-07 Industry/University Research Partnerships: A Win-Win Situation

AgHealthNews is an electronic version of the Center's quarterly newsletter. The Center has two electronic list servers that allow automatic forwarding of e-mail to a list of subscribers. One server is a forum for announcements and discussion of agricultural health and safety issues and the other is a vehicle for the automatic distribution of the Center's quarterly newsletter.

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The train-the-trainer workshop program is just one of several programs being created by federal and state government, and private agencies in Mexico and the United States, to help spread the word in Mexico about the harmful effects that pesticides pose for agricultural workers, consumers and the environment.

According to Grace Robiou of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mexico and the United States have been working together on pesticide-related issues for several years through a technical working group that was formed under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The collaboration between Mexico and the United States began to take shape in 1999, when Mexico adopted regulations similar to the United States Worker Protection Standard. Robiou said, "It was at that time that we decided to coordinate our programs and activities so we could better serve the needs of the three to four million permanent and migratory agricultural workers in each country."

Weber, pesticide safety educator for the Statewide IPM Project at UC Davis, was invited to assist with these efforts by joining a pesticide safety project team consisting of agricultural, health and labo r professionals from Mexico and the United States. Team members also include Grace Robiou, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Luis Alberto Mercado, Ministry of Health (SSA), Mexico; José Antonio Cabalceta Vara, Ministry of Labor (STPS), Mexico; Eduardo Rangel Machain, State Plant Protection Committee in Guanajuato (CESAVEG), Mexico; Jesús López Olvera, Ministry of Environment and National Resources (SEMARNAT), Mexico; Gustavo González, Ministry of Agriculture (SAGARPA); and Antonio Rojas, Texas Department of Agriculture. The group members have been working together for several months to develop workshops and educational materials offering teaching techniques and hands-on demonstration methods that pesticide safety educators can use to create or improve their own programs.

Two separate three-day pilot workshops will be held in Morelos Feb. 25-27, and in Sinaloa March 4-6. The first two days of each workshop will consist of discussion of a variety of topics, including environ-mental protection, health risks of pesticide use, safe pesticide handling procedures, under-standing and following pesticide label instructions, personal protective equipment, and effective teaching methods for adult audiences. Attendees will be given an opportunity to apply their newly acquired skills on the third day, when they participate as instructors during an actual training session for farm workers and pesticide handlers.

Project team members expect that the pilot train-the-trainers programs will be successful not only in providing information and resources to current pesticide safety educators, but also as a way to combine existing efforts to produce a national pesticide program that can be offered to agricultural workers and rural community members throughout Mexico.

For more information about the Mexico train-the-trainer project, you may e-mail Jennifer Weber at jlweber@ucdavis.edu, or call (530) 752-5930.

"I'm delighted to have a commitment for five more years of support by the national institute for the important work of the center," said Center Director Marc Schenker, M.D., M.P.H. "Healthy farmers and farm workers are a resource for California and the country, and it is the goal of this center to prevent injury and promote wellness in this large and important population."

Schenker noted that UC Davis, with its College of Agricultural and Environ-mental Sciences, as well as schools of medicine and veterinary medicine, provides the ideal academic environment for this type of research and education program. Founded in 1990, the center is one of 10 agricultural health and safety centers established in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control to protect and improve the health and safety of the nation's farmers, farm workers and consumers. Research at the Davis center has particularly focused on issues affecting agriculture in the Western United States.

Researchers affiliated with the center have studied ergonomic issues to prevent injuries in labor-intensive fruit and vegetable crops, examined exposure to harmful levels of agricultural dust and pesticide, and designed educational programs to protect children of farm workers from health and safety hazards. Their work has resulted in development of new tools and techniques to reduce the stress and strain of repetitive agricultural tasks, new tests to measure pesticide exposure, and a new surveillance system to identify situations that pose a particular risk of respiratory disease to workers.

The center also has developed educational conferences, workshops and educational seminars to share its research findings with other farmers and farm workers, health professionals and the general public.

The new grant enables the center to continue existing research and education projects and to investigate new areas of concern.

Occupational Dust Exposure and Human Lung Pathology in the Central Valley of California
Michelle Kim
Are Central Valley agricultural workers at higher risk for developing small-airways disease than non-agricultural workers? Michelle Kim spent the summer looking for answers. Working with principal investigator Kent E. Pinkerton, Kim has analyzed 48 of 117 lung tissue samples collected from Hispanic or Latino males obtained by the Fresno County Coroner's office. She examined airway branching patterns in the deposition, retention, and histopathology associated with mineral dusts in the lung. The median age of the subjects was 29 years, with an average of 16 years spent in Fresno County. Half of the subjects had died in motor vehicle accidents, and about a quarter died from gunshot or stab wounds. None had died of pulmonary disease. Kim found more silica in the lungs of agricultural workers than in non-agricultural workers. "Upon analysis, we found a statistically significant difference between farm workers and non-farm workers for silica lung burden," said Kim. "We also found significant results for black pigment burden, fibrosis and mineral dust burden in the small airways of farm workers." When Kim compared subjects who smoked to non-smokers for pulmonary fibrosis in the small airways, she said, "This funding could very well imply that pulmonary fibrosis in farm workers is independent of smoking, and that dust can play an important role in lung disease and remodeling." The study is ongoing.

Validation of Red Blood Cell Ghost (gRBC) for Use with Measurement of Cholinesterases
Daniel E. Arrieta
Clinical laboratories licensed in the state of California are required by law to monitor cholinesterase levels in the agricultural workplace. However, some questions have been raised about the accuracy of the reported levels. As a result, the state of California mandated all state clinical laboratories to use the Ellman colorimetric assay for monitoring pesticides in the agricultural workplace. Under the guidance of principal investigator Barry W. Wilson, Daniel Arrieta has been involved with standardizing cholinesterase measurements in clinical laboratories. "We have reported that only two of 29 clinical laboratories licensed in the state of California were able to properly monitor cholinesterase," said Arrieta. "In order to address this issue, we have developed a reliable standard by which they can evaluate the accuracy of their assay." The standard to which Arrieta referred to is a red blood cell ghost preparation developed from bovine blood. Arrieta collected 19 blood samples from Holstein cows to determine the fraction of cholinesterase enzyme activity associated with each of the respective blood components (i.e., plasma, red blood cells). He found that cholinesterase levels of variability were nominal and that the predominant form of cholinesterase present in bovine blood appeared to be acetylcholinesterase, enzymes that are important neuro-transmitters in normal cellular function.

Characterization of Workers' Exposures to Mixed Dust at Vineyards
Jodi Smith
The unique working environment of California farmers places them at risk for particle exposure. Due to dry farming techniques used in the Central Valley of California, farm workers are exposed to high levels of dust through a variety of operations, including vineyard work. Jodi Smith has been working with principal investigator Kiyoung Lee on a study that will provide a database for dust exposure as well as an operation profile for vineyards. "The aims of this study are to estimate annual dust exposure of vineyard workers, develop an exposure-task matrix, identify determinant factors of annual exposure, and develop an exposure indicator using foliar dust," said Smith. She has been measuring inhalable and respirable dust exposure of vineyard workers in the Napa Valley. While in the field, Smith collected leaf samples to quantify foliar dust. Back at the laboratory, she uses a dust generator to agitate the leaves within a rotating chamber. As the air is blown through the chamber and into a sampling chamber, personal samplers collect the dust particles. Another method she uses for foliar dust quantification is a leaf washing technique in which the wash solution is strained through a filter, which collects the particulate matter. "Our preliminary data indicates that hand harvest is the highest exposure operation thus far," she said. "However, our current mean exposure for this operation seems to be lower than that shown in other studies." The study is ongoing to capture the entire cycle of vineyard operations.

Impact of School Agriculture Safety Curriculum on Injury Risk
Lisa Scott
While the annual number of farm deaths to children and adolescents has decreased in recent years, the rate of nonfatal farm injuries has increased. Approximately 100 children and adolescents die on U.S. farms each year as a result of accidental injuries, with an additional 22,000 non-fatal injuries to children under 20 years of age. Under the direction of Center investigator Stephen McCurdy, M.D., Scott identified three high schools currently using a state-approved agricultural education curriculum, and gained approval from school administrators to conduct focus groups at the schools. Scott discussed with students the tasks they perform on farms, hours worked, what they perceive as dangerous, and any injuries they may have suffered on the farm. She developed a questionnaire based on discussions with the students. Questionnaires will be disseminated and collected over a two-year period in this ongoing project. "Our analysis will focus on addressing the hypothesis that students receiving the safety portion of the curriculum will have a lower injury risk than their peers not receiving the safety portion of the curriculum," said Scott.

SHARE Study Program and Automated Vital Statistics System (AVSS)
Jeffrey Bethel
The Study of Hispanic Acculturation, Reproduction and the Environment (SHARE), headed by principal investigator Marc Schenker, M.D., M.P.H., focuses on the three-fold epidemiological paradox of Latina women in the United States:

Ergonomic Evaluation of California Winegrape Trellis Systems
Andrew E. Kato
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the lower back and upper extremities account for the most commonly reported injuries in the winegrape industry. These conditions are likely due to often highly forceful and repetitive hand-intensive movements combined with frequent stooped postures. Andrew E. Kato's research with principal investigator Fadi A. Fathallah focused on a pruning simulation conducted on five trellis systems-VSP, Lyre, Scott Henry, Smart Dyson and VSP 4x4. "The main objective of our research is to determine if there are differences in risk of developing musculoskeletal injuries based on use of different trellis systems," said Kato. Researchers constructed the five trellis systems for study and began using the Lumbar Motion Monitor (LMM) and the Motion Analysis System (MAS) for data collection purposes. The LMM and MAS are used to track the motion of the spine in the three principal anatomical planes (sagittal, transverse and coronal) and to capture kinematic data of the wrist respectively. "Data collection was completed and analysis is currently in progress," said Kato.

2002-2003 Funding
The Center will be awarding new funding for graduate students in their research and outreach efforts relating to agricultural health and safety for the 2002-2003 academic year. The upcoming awards may be up to $15,000 per year for a full year's support; however, support may also be given for a shorter period, such as over the summer.

The insurance industry donates hundreds of millions of dollars a year to charities. "That's money the industry gives with no expectations back, other than looking and feeling good-as opposed to something that really might make their business better or might make them more successful," says Hair. Hair was impressed by the practicality of the work being done at the Center. He observed, for instance, that a California employer struggling with the issue of ergonomics in a nursery setting can turn to the Center for beneficial information on the subject.

Hair wrote an editorial for the Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health called "From Business to Humanity: Incentives in Agricultural Safety." In it he quoted John R. Commons, a Wisconsin industrial economist of the early 1900s, who was instrumental in some of the original theories and formulation of workers' compensation laws. Commons believed that financial incentives could be a motivating factor in getting business support for employee safety.

Hair asserts that the insurance industry would benefit greatly by funding research specifically aimed at causes and prevention of many of the injuries and illnesses that drain its resources. "We don't understand as well as we would like, for example, why some people have an injury and recover and some people don't, and it just devastates their life," says Hair.

Liberty Mutual published the "Workplace Safety Index" to focus private and public safety research efforts. The top six injuries that result in the biggest losses to industry are:
1. overexertion-lifting, pushing, pulling, holding, carrying;
2. falls-slipping and falling;
3. bodily reaction-loss of balance and slipping without falling;
4. falls to a lower level;
5. being struck by an object in the workplace; and
6. repetitive motion injuries.

"Our own data is similar to Liberty Mutual's," says Hair. "In one year we incurred losses of $29 million in lifting injuries. For us, repetitive motion injuries were number two, with $23 million in losses. We lost $15 million from cumulative injuries, and if you lump together several categories that have to do with falls, our loss was $22 million. If there's some research that is being done that would enable us to help our policy holders prevent these injuries, we are interested." A single lower back injury can cost in excess of $100,000, and Hair contends insurance companies may be willing to invest in focused research into the causes and prevention of lower back injuries.

"The industry also could use some help in analyzing our own data," he says. "The amount of data that we record every day is immense and it's difficult to dig down into it to see what it tells us about injuries. That is something that in cooperation with the academic community could be a very positive thing for us. We've done some of that, but we could do more."

Despite the cyclical nature of the insurance business, which forces the industry into some erratic pricing behaviors and some ups and downs in profitability, it urgently needs to invest money to help it better understand the nature of how loss occurs.

"The Zenith is a mid-sized workers' compensation insurance carrier," says Hair, "and we have successfully collaborated with academia in the past and will in the future. I think there is great potential for private industry and the university to work together to try to solve some of these problems."

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