Donald C. Cole

Environmental risk and (re)action: air quality, health, and civic involvement in an urban industrial neighbourhood

This paper explores the links between (perceived) environmental risk and community (re) action in an urban industrial neighbourhood in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. In-depth interviews were conducted with residents of an area with a documented history of adverse air quality, in order to determine the relative influence of social capital (networks, norms, and social trust) and place attachment (sense of belonging in a neighbourhood) in deciding to take civic action around this particular environmental issue. The interviews illustrate the complexity of lay understandings of air pollution, and indicate that social capital is a primary contributor to the decision to take certain kinds of action, while attachment to place plays a lesser role.

The Power of Perception: Health Risk Attributed to Air Pollution in an Urban Industrial Neighbourhood

This paper describes a multi-stakeholder process designed to assess the potential health risks associated with adverse air quality in an urban industrial neighborhood. The paper briefly describes the quantitative health risk assessment conducted by scientific experts, with input by a grassroots community group concerned about the impacts of adverse air quality on their health and quality of life. In this case, rather than accept the views of the scientific experts, the community used their powers of perception to advantage by successfully advocating for a professionally conducted community health survey. This survey was designed to document, systematically and rigorously, the health risk perceptions community members associated with exposure to adverse air quality in their neighborhood. This paper describes the institutional and community contexts within which the research is situated as well as the design, administration, analysis, and results of the community health survey administered to 402 households living in an urban industrial neighborhood in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. These survey results served to legitimate the communitys concerns about air quality and to help broaden operational definitions of health. In addition, the results of both health risk assessment exercises served to keep issues of air quality on the local political agenda. Implications of these findings for our understanding of the environmental justice process as well as the ability of communities to influence environmental health policy are discussed.

Upper limb work-related musculoskeletal disorders among newspaper employees: Cross-sectional survey results

At a metropolitan newspaper office in Canada with extensive video display terminal (VDT) use, researchers carried out a survey (n = 1,007, 84% response) to establish baseline prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) and to identify demographic, postural, task, and psychosocial factors associated with WMSD symptoms. One-fifth of the respondents reported moderate or worse upper limb pain recurring at least monthly or lasting more than a week over the previous year. Logistic regression showed that employees who faced frequent deadlines and high psychological demands (fast work pace and conflicting demands), had low skill discretion and social support, spent more time keyboarding, or who had their screen in a non-optimal position were more likely to report moderate to severe symptoms. Women reported significantly higher levels of symptoms than men.

Pesticide Use and Farm Worker Health in Ecuadorian Potato Production

Potatoes are a dietary staple in Ecuador as they have been for thousands of years. In 1992, about 50,000 hectares of potatoes were grown in Ecuador, mostly by small farmers. Almost all potato farmers in Ecuador rely on chemical fertilizers and pesticides to increase yields. Potato farmers are perceived as overusing pesticides, both in quantity and quality, with mixtures of chemicals, known locally as cocktails, being the favored form of application. As in many other countries, there is growing popular concern about the environmental and health impacts of agricultural chemical use. Residue testing on fresh vegetables in Ecuador found levels above those recommended by the FAO-WHO food safety guide, Codex Alimentarius. Human poisoning data were slowly accumulated during the 1980s after pesticide poisoning became a notifiable illness under the public health surveillance system. Focused surveys found widespread ignorance of the symptoms of pesticide poisoning and little use of personal protective equipment among farmers and farmworkers. With the widespread use of backpack sprayers (versus tractor or aerial application in developed countries), these groups are most likely to be at risk of excessive exposure. The research results presented here are from a case study to assess impacts of pesticide use in potato production. This case study follows methodological guidelines laid out by Antle and Capalbo to quantify the interaction between production technology, environmental quality, and human health. Two adjacent watersheds totaling about 150 kilometers in Montufar Canton in Carchi Province in a cool moist highland zone in northern Ecuador served as the case

Economic burden of illness from pesticide poisonings in highland Ecuador

Active surveillance of acute pesticide poisonings in a potato-growing region of highland Ecuador during 1991-1992 uncovered a rate of 171/100,000, due predominantly to occupational exposures to organophosphate and carbamate pesticides. Occupational exposure among agricultural workers was the most common reason for poisoning (32 male workers and 1 female worker, out of a total of 50 cases). Of these 33 cases, 28 of them reported pesticide application as the work task just prior to poisoning, with over 80% citing the use of World Health Organization Hazard Category I pesticides. The suicide rate of 17.1/100,000 and the overall mortality rate of 20.5/100,000 that we found are among the highest reported anywhere in the world. At the exchange rates prevailing at that time, median costs associated with these poisonings were estimated as follows: public and social security health care direct costs of US

Further evidence on pesticides, productivity and farmer health: Potato production in Ecuador

9.85/case; private health costs of US

Neurobehavioral outcomes among farm and nonfarm rural Ecuadorians.

8.33/case; and lost-time indirect costs of US

Work correlates of back problems and activity restriction due to musculoskeletal disorders in the Canadian national population health survey (NPHS) 1994-5 data.

8.33/agricultural worker. Each one of those costs was over five times the daily agricultural wage, which was then about US

Environmental equity in Canada: an empirical investigation into the income distribution of pollution in Ontario

1.50. Further costing of pesticide poisonings should be carried out in other settings to provide appropriate information for decisions about pesticide use. In addition, integrated pest management should be further evaluated as an appropriate technology to reduce the economic burden of illness from pesticide poisonings in developing countries.

Declining Trends in Work-Related Morbidity and Disability, 1993–1998: A Comparison of Survey Estimates and Compensation Insurance Claims

A recent paper by Antle and Pingali (1994) showed that farmers health had a significant impact on the productivity of Philippine rice farms, and that pesticide use in rice production had a significant impact on farmers health. A simulation analysis showed that restricting the use of insecticides that posed the greatest health risk was a win-win policy, as it would increase both the health and productivity or Philippine rice farmers. Two features of Philippine rice production that could affect the outcome of that analysis are, first, the low productivity of insecticides in rice production, and second, the humid tropical rice paddy environment where farmers use of protective clothing is minimal. The Antle and Pingali study left open the question of whether this win-win result would hold in a situation where the marginal productivity of insecticides or other pesticides is higher, and where the climate is more