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Human poisoning by pesticides has long been seen as a severe public health problem. As early as 1990, a task force of the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that about one million unintentional pesticide poisonings occur annually, leading to approximately 20,000 deaths. Thirty years on there is no up-to-date picture of global pesticide poisoning despite an increase in global pesticide use. Our aim was to systematically review the prevalence of unintentional, acute pesticide poisoning (UAPP), and to estimate the annual global number of UAPP. We carried out a systematic review of the scientific literature published between 2006 and 2018, supplemented by mortality data from WHO. We extracted data from 157 publications and the WHO cause-of-death database, then performed country-wise synopses, and arrived at annual numbers of national UAPP. World-wide UAPP was estimated based on national figures and population data for regions defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In total 141 countries were covered, including 58 by the 157 articles and an additional 83 by data from the WHO Mortality Database. Approximately 740,000 annual cases of UAPP were reported by the extracted publications resulting from 7446 fatalities and 733,921 non-fatal cases. On this basis, we estimate that about 385 million cases of UAPP occur annually world-wide including around 11,000 fatalities. Based on a worldwide farming population of approximately 860 million this means that about 44% of farmers are poisoned by pesticides every year. The greatest estimated number of UAPP cases is in southern Asia, followed by south-eastern Asia and east Africa with regards to non-fatal UAPP. Our study updates outdated figures on world-wide UAPP. Along with other estimates, robust evidence is presented that acute pesticide poisoning is an ongoing major global public health challenge. There is a need to recognize the high burden of non-fatal UAPP, particularly on farmers and farmworkers, and that the current focus solely on fatalities hampers international efforts in risk assessment and prevention of poisoning. Implementation of the international recommendations to phase out highly hazardous pesticides by the FAO Council could significantly reduce the burden of UAPP.

Correspondence on: Statistical Issues in Farmworker Studies.

Context: Organophosphate (OP) pesticides are neurotoxic at high doses. Few studies have examined whether chronic exposure at lower levels could adversely affect children's cognitive development. Objective: We examined associations between prenatal and postnatal exposure to OP pesticides and cognitive abilities in school-age children. Methods: We conducted a birth cohort study (Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas study) among predominantly Latino farmworker families from an agricultural community in California. We assessed exposure to OP pesticides by measuring diaikyl phosphate (DAP) metabolites in urine collected during pregnancy and from children at 6 months and 1, 2, 3.5, and 5 years of age. We administered the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 4th edition, to 329 children 7 years of age. Analyses were adjusted for maternal education and intelligence, Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment score, and language of cognitive assessment. Results: Urinary DAP concentrations measured during the first and second half of pregnancy had similar relations to cognitive scores, so we used the average of concentrations measured during pregnancy in further analyses. Averaged maternal DAP concentrations were associated with poorer scores for Working Memory, Processing Speed, Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, and Full-Scale intelligence quotient (IQ). Children in the highest quintile of maternal DAP concentrations had an average deficit of 7.0 IQ points compared with those in the lowest quintile. However, children's urinary DAP concentrations were not consistently associated with cognitive scores. Conclusions: Prenatal but not postnatal urinary DAP concentrations were associated with poorer intellectual development in 7-year-old children. Maternal urinary DAP concentrations in the present study were higher but nonetheless within the range of levels measured in the general U.S. population.

ASEAN agricultural workers represent one of the most vulnerable groups of workers regardless of citizenship. While bilateral agreements focus on general migration governance mechanisms, the specifics of agricultural workers’ rights and protections fall outside their scope. Due to the seasonal nature of cross-border agriculture, these are flexible precarious workers readily available to employers in the borderlands that often do not invest in worker health and social security. The Article reveals how foreign migrant agricultural workers with and without work permits continue to fall between the gaps of national labor protection laws, due to both legal structural exclusions as well as the particular vulnerabilities of being noncitizen workers in remote, unsafe workplaces. This Article documents some of the developments during 20172019 in migrant employment in export cash crops. The next challenge for the future is developing mechanisms for bilateralism to lower migration costs, with a commitment to genuinely safe migration, as well as the establishment of long-term equitable working conditions for all migrant workers. The major findings demonstrate how the two main reasons for the discrepancies between the BLA and labor protections have to do with the noninterventionist approach of ASEAN and a series of technical exclusions in Thailand’s labor law and regulation.

OBJECTIVE:Stress is pervasive among Latino immigrants. We identified seasonal and occupational patterns in stress among rural Latino immigrants. METHODS:During three agricultural periods, farmworker and non-farmworker participants responded to a 24-item stress questionnaire (Snipes et al.). We measured the associations of stress with occupation, with season, and occupation within season, adjusting for demographic variables. RESULTS:The highest levels of stress were observed in the pre-thinning season when pruning takes place among farmworkers. Stress is significantly higher in farmworkers compared to non-farmworkers only in the non-spray season when crops are dormant. Higher income was associated with decreased stress in the pre-thinning and thinning seasons when buds and small fruit are removed from orchards. CONCLUSIONS:Identification of strategies to reduce stress in Latino migrants is warranted. Although some sources of stress may be intractable, others may be amenable to intervention.