Pesticide Exposure - Contact a Lawyer

Pesticide Related Illnesses

Pesticides have been tracked within the state of California for more than 50 years. The California Environmental Protection Agency, Departmentof Pesticide Regulation (DPR) maintains a surveillance program which records human health effects of pesticide exposure.

The Pesticide Illness Surveillance Program (PISP) documents information on adverse effects from pesticide products, whether elicited by the active ingredients, inert ingredients, impurities, or breakdown products. This program maintains a database, which is utilized for evaluating the circumstances of pesticide exposures resulting in illness. This database is consulted regularly by staff who evaluate(s) the effectiveness of the DPR pesticide safety programs and recommend changes when appropriate.

Type of Exposure:

Characterization of how an individual came in contact with a pesticide.

Exposure categories not listed on the table indicate there were noillnesses that occurred under that category.

Drift: Spray, mist, fumes, or odor carried from the target site by air. Drift must be related to an application or mix/load activity.

Residue: The part of a pesticide that remains in the environment for a period of time following an application or drift. This includes odor after the completion of an application.

Direct Spray/Squirt: Material propelled by the application or mix/load equipment. Contact with the material can be by direct projection or ricochet. This includes exposure of mechanics working on application or mix/load equipment when the material is forced out by pressure.

Spill/Other Direct: Any of the following: 1) Contact made during an application or mixing/loading operation where the material is not propelled by the equipment; 2) Expected direct contact during use (e.g. washing dishes in a disinfectant solution); 3) Leaks, spills, etc. not related toan application.

Ingestion: Intentional or unintentional oral ingestion.

Multiple: Contact with pesticides occurred through two or more mechanisms.

Other: Other known route of exposure not included in other exposure categories. This includes, but not limited to: 1) Residue from a spill and 2) Exposure to smoke or pyrolitic products from a fire where pesticides are burning.Unknown: Route of exposure is not known.4 Type of Illness: Categorization of the type of symptoms experienced. Systemic : Any health effects not limited to the respiratory, skin and/or eye. Cases involving multiple illness symptom types including systemic symptomsare included in the systemic category. Respiratory : Health effects involving any part of the respiratory tree. Topical: Health effects involving only the eyes and/or skin. This excludes outward physical signs (miosis and lacrimation) related to effects on internal bodily systems. These signs are classified under ‘Systemic.’ Asymptomatic : Exposure occurred, but did not result in illness/injury. Cholinesterase depression without symptoms falls in this category.

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