Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #104518

Matthew Keifer, MD, MPH, Dep Env & Occ Hlth Sciences and Int Scholars Occ Env Hlth, University of Washington, Box 357234, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-7234, 206.616.1452, mkeifer@u.washington.edu, Mary E. Miller, MN, ARNP, Department of Labor and Industries, P.O. Box 44510, Olympia, WA 98504-4510, and Richard A. Fenske, MPH, PhD, Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Box 357234, Seattle, WA 98195.

A lawsuit brought by a group of pesticide poisoned farmworkers forced the Washington State OSHA (WISHA) program operated by the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) to require cholinesterase (ChE) testing for exposed pesticide handlers. The State Supreme Court found L&I had failed to conform to its own mandate to protect workers and ordered rulemaking. In February 2004, responding to this court decision WISHA began requiring agricultural employers to offer ChE monitoring to all agricultural workers who mixed, loaded or applied EPA class I or II organophosphates or both organophosphates and carbamates for more than 50 hours per 30 day period. The rule requires that both plasma and red blood cell ChE be tested. As the rulemaking proceeded, the state legislature held hearings;political compromises led to a rule with progressive protection over a two-year period and a system that afforded an opportunity for a degree of scientific scrutiny. The Washington State Department of Health Laboratory conducted the ChE testing statewide permitting centralized data collection. Required reporting of exposure information promised to permit analysis of biological outcomes against exposure estimates. Scientific and stakeholder advisory committees have begun to evaluate the rule. Nearly 20% of monitored workers sustained at least one ChE depression of 20% or greater. No symptomatic poisonings were reported among workers. This unique statewide ChE monitoring may provide a snapshot of the effectiveness of efforts to protect workers from overexposure to organophosphate pesticides nationwide. The results have implications for the Worker Protection Standard nationwide.

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