Pesticide Exposures in the Yakima Valley

Armstrong setting up passive air samplers
Originally posted on UW SPHA blog. Yakima Valley, Washington is one of the most productive and diverse agricultural regions in the country. Tree fruits and vegetables are have been stable crops, but unfortunately, the application of numerous toxic organophosphate pesticides (OPs) has become a common way to combat regional pests like the coddling moth. Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) selected this area as one of ten Environmental Justice Showcase Communities due to multiple environmental health concerns of contaminated drinking water and air. Over the course of the last few years, my own research has been to identify cheap and safe air sampling methods for quantifying residential exposures to aid rural community-based health projects.

Scientists argue that the amount of OP pesticide use cannot go unnoticed because of the numerous health effects resulting from exposures. Data on residential exposures are important to look as associations with long-term health outcomes such as asthma, cancer and neurological disorders. Young children, genetically susceptible individuals, and farm workers and their families in the region may be particularly vulnerable– even if they are not involved in farm activities. They can be exposed to pesticides in outdoor and indoor environments if pesticides drift from nearby fields or family members bring home contaminated work clothing or materials.

During my field work experience, I had the chance to speak with many local residents who rely heavily on agricultural and food manufacturing industries to support jobs and sustain local livelihoods. Farmworkers often dream of transitioning to higher ranks and purchasing their own farmland, and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation have been cultivating and leasing farmland for generations. In fact, the role of a pesticide applicator is usually one of the highest paid jobs on the farm.

Our research team recognized it was difficult to collect good air quality data in rural and remote areas. There are unstable electricity sources, variable housing quality, free-ranging farm animals and pets, and in homes with high residential density. Some farmworker families are surrounded by the constant anxieties of legal/non-legal status. They have busy lives with large families to support. It is important to develop new air quality measurement methods that are easy to deploy, inexpensive, and inconspicuous. Our prototype air samplers are not that glamorous– they don’t use electricity or high-tech equipment. These are called “passive air sampling” techniques.

It is our top priority to explain to local farmworkers and their families about their air quality and informing them of simple steps to improve what they are breathing indoors and outdoors. The use of passive air sampling techniques is a great way to cut costs and invasiveness for future air monitoring projects. With time and patience, we can only hope that better data on air quality will be well connected to health outcomes, especially in rural areas.

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About Jenna Armstrong: I have always had a strong interest on the environmental health impacts of agriculture. Currently my research involves designing air monitoring projects to examine rural air quality, including: pesticide use and drift, agricultural occupational health and safety issues, bio-aerosols, and combustion byproducts. Outside school, I love to run– just qualified for my first Boston Marathon next year.

Student dispatch from 23rd Annual Semiahmoo Conference

On January 6th, 7th, and 8th of 2011, students, faculty, and staff from the University of Washington School of Public Health, the University of British Columbia School of Population and Public Health, and the Simon Fraser University Faculty of Health Sciences met at Semiahmoo in Blaine, WA for the 23rd Annual Occupational & Environmental Health Conference and the 6th Annual Public Health Symposium.

The conference was a great opportunity for students, program directors, and faculty from the United States and Canada to share their research and ideas with one another.

The highlight of the conference was when the Dean of the UW School of Public Health, Howard Frumkin, gave a very inspirational speech about planning for environmental public health in the future. He discussed some of the largest challenges facing new environmental health professionals in future years, and I would like to share some of his thoughtful insights:

1. Demographic Changes: The population is expected to dramatically increase and peak at 10 billion people worldwide. This could lead to public health issues regarding crowding, security, resources, and access to food. There will be new challenges regarding unemployment, job security, and income inequality. The world’s population is also becoming more diverse, as we are witnessing shifts to a population with no major ethic group. For example, in the United States, Spanish has been, and will be—a second language. As health care and living conditions improve, we will also see an increase in the aging population, and people will begin to retire at later stages in their life.
2. Scientific Advances: New ideas in information technology have made it possible to do electronic data management, share databases, and allowed personal access to information over the internet. This will allow researchers and professionals to rapidly report and collaborate on large projects. With rapidly advancing medical technology and the genomics revolution, we will see many advances in biomedical processes. For example, it has become possible to pin point the early life origins of late life disease (e.g. early chemical exposures, hygiene hypothesis). A new mindset has encouraged the development of green technologies, such as green chemistry, solar power, LED lights, composting/recycling, and plug in vehicles. However, each new technology should be evaluated for its safe use, production, and environmental impacts.
3. Environmental Change: Although previously debated, the issue of climate change is now very much a reality. This will lead to changes in atmospheric concentrations of CO2, O3, and other compounds, rising temperatures, and increasing sea levels; and the spread of pathogens and heat related disease to new locations. People will continue to relocate to the cities, as more than 50% of the world’s population will become urbanized. In addition, resource scarcities could increase as the weekly per capita energy consumption and demand for energy, water, food, and money increases.
4. Disease: Primary prevention will be the most important tool in fighting the diseases of the future. Although infectious disease will be a concern, the shift to chronic disease and injuries. It will be important to track health disparities.

Jenna Armstrong is a PhD student in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington. Jenna was a NIOSH-supported trainee of the NWCOHS during the 2009-2010 academic year. Find more information on Jenna, as well as some of her other posts here.

Autumn 2010 ERC Research Seminar

The NWCOHS offers a quarterly seminar that features the work of ERC faculty and trainees. The Autumn 2010 quarter, held on November 12, 2010, featured 2009-2010 pilot projects that included faculty or projects from all four of the States served by NWCOHS - Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.


Dr. Noah Seixas, UW Professor and NWCOHS Director opened the seminar.


"Development & Evaluation of a 'Master Mercury Checklist for Schools'
(NIOSH Safety Checklist Program for Schools)"
Danielle Long, Boise State University
Advised by Dr. Kai Elgethun


"Development and Evaluation of a Safety Surveillance Tool for Homecare Workers"
Robert Wright, Portland State University and Layla Garrigues, Oregon Health & Science University
Advised by Dr. Ryan Olson and Dr. Brad Wipfli


"Organophosphorus pesticide oxygen analogs and worker exposure during and following agricultural spraying: are they present in air or an artifact of sampling"
Jenna Armstrong, University of Washington
Advised by Dr. Richard Fenske and Dr. Michael Yost


"Using new technologies to characterize and reduce whole body vibration exposures". Research conducted in Alaska and results presented at 29th Annual Alaska Governor's Safety and Health Conference.
Ryan Blood, University of Washington
Advised by Dr. Peter Johnson

2010 NOHC Student Research Forum Winners

(Pictured Above from left to right: Wenqi Gan, Dan Sarkany, Jenna Armstrong)

NWCOHS is pleased to announce the 2010 NOHC Student Research Forum Winners!

Premier Award
Wenqi Gan, School of Environmental Health, UBC
Gan, W. Q., H. W. Davies, and P. A. Demers. “Exposure to occupational noise and cardiovascular disease in the United States: the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2004”.

Honorable Mentions
Dan Sarkany, School of Environmental Health, UBC
Sarkany, D., C. McLeod, H. W. Davies, K. C. Lyons, and M. Koehoorn. “Injury rates and British Columbia Faller Training Standard”.

Jenna Armstrong, Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences, UW
Armstrong, J. L. and R. A. Fenske. “Presence of organophosphorus pesticide oxygen analogs in air samples”.

About the NOHC Student Research Forum
The Northwest Occupational Health Conference (NOHC) is held yearly in the fall by the Industrial Hygiene (IH), Occupational Medicine (OM), and Occupational Health Nursing (OHN) communities. An event organized by PNSAIHA, the NOHC is among the largest and most successful regional multidisciplinary conferences, attracting 250-300 attendees from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and British Columbia.

Each Year, the Northwest Center for Occupational Health & Safety (NWCOHS), in collaboration with the NOHC, hosts a 'Student Research Forum' open to graduate students and recent alumni of the northwest regional institutions and within the professional categories of IH, OM, OHN, OS and other related disciplines such as epidemiology, engineering, occupational health psychology, policy, and management. Graduate students and recent alumni are invited to submit research papers for presentation at the conference. Three exceptional papers are chosen to receive an award and scholarship to attend and present their work at the conference. All submissions are judged by a panel of OH&S professionals.

Trainee Life - Ergonomics Platform Research in the Central Valley

This week, as a graduate student I had an amazing opportunity to join some research staff in conducting an investigatory study on ergonomics in related agricultural occupations. According to the Berkeley Lab and the IEA, Ergonomics is “the science of designing the job, equipment, and workplace to fit the worker.” Proper design or equipment or processes are necessary to prevent repetitive strain injuries. Although I had learned about the importance of ergonomics in our industrial hygiene courses—namely on repetitive and strenuous industrial work--this was my first experience in the field and with technical equipment measuring the movements of workers. While much research has been done in the industrial and office work settings, fewer ergonomic studies have focused on agriculture. The goal was to use input measurement devices and current computer data logging programs to record movement and range of motion data over the course of a typical eight hour work period for an agricultural worker.

I traveled with two other women research staffers to Central Washington, where we had a debriefing meeting over the technical equipment and computer programs at the hotel before our early departure at 4:00 AM. Although I take pride in the fact that I am originally a small town girl who grew up in Southern Missouri, I have spent the last 5 years of my life in the city. I was shockingly brought back to my own rural upbringing when I remembered the crazy hours that farm workers wake up everyday to start their work. Needless to say, it is quite opposite the 9-5 “dream job” working environment that we all dream of as students! However, work in the fields is invigorating and lively. It turns out (with great appreciation for Washington State’s higher latitude) that the sun rise begins around 4:30 AM during the month of June. Once I got into the flow of things and adjusted to the hours, it was refreshing to feel like we were the only ones awake as most of the population still slept soundly in comfort of their own beds. The sun rising during a crisp summer morning over Mount Adams and the Cascade Range to the west was definitely a view to remember. But reflection time ended as there was work to be done!

I learned that in the orchards, most of the tree fruit thinners are women. They work with the utmost speed and finesse, removing whole branches of baby fruits in the blink of an eye. Most fruits, such as apples, grow as baby fruits in “bunches” of 3 or 4. The goal of fruit thinning is to remove all apples from the bunch expect for one in order to maximize energy supply and allow it to grow to a fuller, appealing size for consumption. Although most fruit thinning occurs through the use of special ladders, there has been a recent shift to relying on specially made, mechanical “platforms”. Although more expensive, these platforms speed up the work process and is extremely beneficial for large fruit growers. However, there is very little knowledge on the ergonomics and work load required for the women to stay in pace with the machine. As research scientists, we kept track of productivity (e.g. speed of the platform) and conducted personal observations that included our own notes about observed motions and habits; as well as recording video and taking photos.

As a student, I was really thankful for the chance to do interesting work. I think that results from this project will really allow the development of recommendations and ways to make the tree fruit thinning process more productive and safe! Most of all, I really enjoyed working with the women workers, and even got the chance to use some of the Spanish I had studied all those years. They were extremely cooperative, and willing to show us the ropes. Due to the fact that most of our research staff was also women, there was a unique sense of camaraderie and friendship. This was best displayed when we were recording measurements on a worker, and she quickly jumped down from the platform mid-day and started running back to her car. She had just received a phone call from her family in the hospital, as her eldest daughter had been in labor all day and was having a baby. She was going to become a grandmother-- what exciting news! We had to quickly and carefully remove all her monitoring equipment, and wish her the best of luck. It was a perfect example of how occupational field work may never go as planned. Sometimes it is for reasons that we scientists can no longer “control” for.

To end the trip, I got to try some freshly picked Rainer cherries straight from the tree and took home a bundle of picked asparagus. Needless to say, I will never taste anything quite as good in Seattle. I have become more deeply appreciative of the hard work that agricultural workers put forth for us to enjoy our food and hope to get back to the valley as soon as my research allows!

Photo Credits: Jenna Armstrong

Fall Interdisciplinary Research Seminar

Friday, November 6, 2009 •1:00-3:00 p.m. • 4225 Roosevelt Way NE, Room 229

Organophosphorus Pesticide Oxygen Analogs in Air Samples
Jenna Armstrong, PhD Student, Environmental & Occupational Hygiene

Designing the Age Friendly Workplace: An Action-Oriented Training Intervention
Steve Hecker, Director of Continuing Education and Outreach

Concurrent Exposure Pathways and Age-Adjustments: Considerations for Toxics Cleanup
Miyoko Sasakura, MS Student, Occupational & Environmental Exposure Sciences

Gate Gourmet at SFO: The Hidden World of In-flight Catering
Yuh-chi Niou, MS Student, Occupational & Environmental Exposure Sciences

For further information, please contact Dr. Michael Yost: (206) 685-7243 or Sean Schmidt: (206) 543-2837

To request disability accommodations, contact the office of the ADA Coordinator at least ten days in advance of the event at 206-543-6450 (voice); 206-543-6452 (TDD); 206-685-3885 (FAX); access@u.washington.edu.
Questions: call 206-616-7474