Health of workers exposed to a cocktail of pesticides

Summary

For evaluation of the health effects of occupational exposure to a cocktail of pesticides, the authors examined several groups of workers, exposed in agriculture etc. and industry. Matched controls have been examined with the same standardized procedures. The following conclusions could be drawn:

workers, intensively exposed for more than 4 years to a cocktail of pesticides experience diminished wellbeing (more subjective symptoms);

there did not exist any statistically significant difference in findings in physical examination (skin disease excluded); however, the intensively exposed workers tend to show a higher prevalence of slight neurotoxic symptoms (mainly hypo- and areflexia);

some blood levels (e.g. perc. α₂-globulin, transaminases, alkalinephosphatase) differ significantly from those in controls; there is no consistent pattern of biochemical response; the deviations may be interpreted as indicating increased variability of some parameters and moderate increase or decrease of average levels, generally still within the ranges found in the control group;

exposure of the intensively exposed workers as a group must be regarded as too high to allow undisturbed health;

exposure of these workers probably exceds at least 50–100 times exposure of the general population; workers eposed 20–50 times this population level do not show increased prevalence of subjective symptoms;

the data do not suggest that exposure of the general population will induce adverse effects on health.