12/27/05 Cholinesterase tests improve safety? Pt 1

Improved safety through cholinesterase testing? I'm Andy Patrick. Is the monitoring program creating decreased pesticide exposure? Some possible answers are coming up on today's "Northwest Fruit Grower Report". 2006 will be the third year Washington State's Labor and Industries Department will conduct a monitoring program for pesticide exposure for farm workers, especially those in the tree fruit industry. The program monitors exposure though blood testing for depressed cholinesterase levels. So has the program created a safer work place for those farm workers handling pesticides? Dan Fazio of the Washington Farm Bureau says the findings are mixed. For one thing, with only a limited number of employers participating in the cholinesterase monitoring program, the amount of data to analyze is limited. FAZIO: I'd expect much more L and I enforcement to check your program. They are looking at the fact that only 300 plus people participated. And they are saying there are much more people than that out there. And Fazio adds that those employers enrolled in the program are limiting the number of workers applying pesticides. FAZIO: Most people now don't want to do the testing, so they're having fewer people applying their pesticides. And so the people that apply it are really becoming professionals in it. So you have fewer people doing the applications and they are people who are really knowing what they are doing. But does that mean improved safety for farm workers? Fazio says not necessarily. He believes the current monitoring program has become a matter of logistics. More on that in our next program.