Pesticides on Farms

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed federal and state efforts to monitor occupational illnesses resulting from exposure to pesticides on farms, focusing on whether federal and state monitoring systems provide sufficient information on pesticide-related illnesses in the farm sector. GAO found that: (1) although numerous federal and state systems provide information on acute pesticide-related illnesses, none address delayed or chronic health effects and all but one are limited in scope and information quality; (2) the national incidence of pesticide illnesses that occur in the farm sector could not be determined because of a lack of sufficient data and monitoring; (3) the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for determining the potential occupational risks of pesticide use in the farm sector, developing practices to mitigate these effects, and establishing systems to monitor the effectiveness of its mitigation practices; (4) reporting of pesticide-related illnesses is inconsistent and incomplete because EPA relies on informal and voluntary state and local reporting systems and information obtained from national surveys and general data sources; (5) although 25 states have mandatory reporting requirements for occupational pesticide-related illnesses, most states report pesticide-illness information with general disease information; (6) California’s monitoring system is the most effective and comprehensive and provides detailed information on pesticide-related illnesses; and (7) pesticide illness underreporting continues to be a serious problem because farmworkers often do not recognize and report illnesses and health care providers are not adequately trained to identify and report pesticide related illnesses.