Paul Gunderson

Data on prior pesticide use collected from self- and proxy respondents

Proxy respondents have often been used in case-control studies of cancer and pesticides. To evaluate the effect of exposure misclassification, we compared data collected during 1981–1983 from participants interviewed for a case- control study of leukemia and non-Hodgkins lymphoma with data collected during 1990–1991 from proxy respondents for participants who died or became incompetent since the initial interview (328 self-proxy pairs). As questions increased in detail, agreement percentages decreased. Agreement percentages were highest for demographic and general farming information (averages = 88–90%) and lowest for specific pesticide use (averages = 68–74%). Generally, odds ratios calculated from proxy respondent data were less than those from self-respondent data; however, several exceptions occurred. The findings indicate that pesticide data provided by proxy respondents will not necessarily result in the same estimate of risk and/or lead to the same conclusions as data provided by self-respondents.

Occupational health in the dairy industry needs to focus on immigrant workers, the new normal.

This journal issue focuses on the many health and safety outcomes associated with dairy work, including changes resulting from new technologies associated with modern, larger dairies. However, there is another more dramatic change that has occurred in the dairy industry and that has an even more profound impact on the ultimate goal of improving the health and safety of dairy workers. That change is the transition to an immigrant workforce, a transformation that has occurred over the past 10 to 15 years. In the United States, this has largely been a transition to immigrant Latino workers, whereas elsewhere in the world other immigrant ethnic groups represent this transition. For example, growth in the large New Zealand dairy industry has been largely sustained by increasing the migrant workforce, half of whom come from the Phillipines.1 Immigrant labor is becoming an increasingly important part of agriculture and animal husbandry in the European Union, particularly since the 2005 EU enlargement. Over 40% of agricultural workers in Italy are from outside the European Union, with the remainder coming from EU countries. In some regions of Italy, the majority of cow milkers come from India. Similarly across the EU countries, unique immigration patterns exist for each country, but all the countries have the similar reality that an

Evaluation of agricultural rescue course by providers.

STUDY OBJECTIVE To assess the characteristics of rural emergency medical services providers involved in the prehospital care of victims of agricultural injuries and determine which aspects of an agricultural rescue course were perceived as most useful. DESIGN A questionnaire was sent to participants of a course designed for agricultural prehospital providers who had attended a farm accident rescue course between 1986 and 1993. SETTING A rural referral center in central Wisconsin. PARTICIPANTS The questionnaire was sent to all persons who had participated in the course. Respondents to the questionnaire characterized their service experience and rated the topic areas in usefulness and whether the subject should be included in future courses. RESULTS A total of 459 surveys (44% of potential respondents) was returned. Of the respondents, 316 (74.4%) were men, and the mean age was 39.4 years. There were 247 (60.8%) who were volunteers, and an additional 126 (31%) were paid, on-call workers. There were 232 (56.4%) basic providers, and 365 (87.5%) were from a rural area. Many (n = 149; 36.9%) had not responded to farm accidents during the past year. Training course topics rated most useful were machinery extrication, tractor overturn, and enclosed-space rescue. CONCLUSIONS Respondents to an evaluation of an agricultural rescue course primarily were rural, basic providers. Future development of courses for emergency medical technicians involved in agriculture rescue must account for this level of training. Such courses should be short and modular with an emphasis on continuing education, practice, and focus on the identified needs of the participants.

Biofuels and North American agriculture--implications for the health and safety of North American producers.

ABSTRACT This decade has provided North American agricultural producers with opportunity to not only produce fiber and food, but also fuel and other industrial products. The drivers incenting this development could be sustained well into the future, therefore workforce safety and health implications are likely to persist for some time. Within production agriculture, the ‘feedstock growth and harvest cycle’ and ‘transport’ sectors possess the changing exposures experienced by workers. The Conference explored the following exposures: distillers grains and bio-processing byproducts, spent catalyst, solvent brine, microbial agents, genetically modified organisms, discharge effluent, H2O dilutes, change in cropping patterns and resultant use of different seeding and harvest technologies, pests (whether target or non-target), and rural traffic resulting from concentrated movement of massive quantities of biomass and grain. Other issues of a more general public health nature such as watershed implications, other environmental impacts, emissions, uneven economic development potential, public safety issues associated with transport of both fuel and other industrial products, and rural emergency medical service need were explored. And, agronomic impacts were noted, including tillage change, potassium buildup in soil, nutrient depletion, sedimentation and erosion of tillable soil, and local esthetics. It was concluded that rural venues for formation and exploration of public policy need to be created.