STATES TRAINING A MICROSCOPE ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Volume 28, Issue 500 October 1, 2007

Doug Farquhar

As the largest producer of agricultural products in this country, California applies enormous amounts of pesticides to its farmland. But pesticides can cause acute poisoning, cancer, birth defects and damage to the nervous system if they come in contact with people. The state wants to know how often that’s happening.

Before 2001, health officials could track acute pesticide illness in workers, but actual data on the amount of pesticides causing harm in humans was not known. Now, with the passage of the 2001 California Environmental Health Surveillance System Act and the 2003 Health Tracking Act, the state’s Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Health Services are reviewing exposure and tracking data to determine levels of toxic chemicals in people. Beyond knowing how much is being applied to agriculture, the state knows how much of a pesticide is actually being ingested by people, and if it’s causing them any harm.

“These laws help California find ways to reduce the growing burden of chronic diseases such as asthma, developmental disorders, some forms of cancer and Parkinson’s disease,” said Dr. Amy Kyle, of the University of California/Berkeley. Such information helps both public health and agricultural interests. Farmers may fear that providing data on pesticide use will scare consumers, but they need to know for their own health, said Washington Representative Zach Hudgins.

Chronic diseases—such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes—are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States, accounting for seven of every 10 deaths and affecting the quality of life of 90 million Americans. Birth defects, developmental diseases, asthma and neurological disorders can also be caused by the environment. Science is finding new links between the environment and chronic diseases every week. “Rates of diseases related to the environment are increasing. We need to look at these links more closely to better determine health risks,” said Kyle.

Federal Funds

The CDC has helped to fund state efforts to develop environmental public health tracking programs with $121 million between 2002 and 2006. This funding has allowed states such as Utah to determine whether cancer rates in western Salt Lake City are higher than normal (they are not), and New Mexico to find out if arsenic levels in drinking water is causing bladder cancer (the state found high rates of bladder cancer among white residents, but low among Hispanic and Native American populations who drank from wells.)

The Pennsylvania Department of Health used a CDC grant to set up an asthma surveillance system to clarify the impacts of environmental hazards on school children with asthma. The legislature has followed suit by introducing HB 1223 (2007) to create a comprehensive statewide asthma tracking program and continue this effort once the CDC grant ends.

Minnesota adopted SB 2096 this year, which appropriated $1 million per year for the next three years to establish an environmental public health tracking program within the Department of Health.

“Programs that are already implemented, such as tracking for asthma, lead testing, and mercury, can be coordinated with environmental public health tracking. We’ll get more accurate results while eliminating fat in the budget,” said Pennsylvania Representative Ryan Dvorak, who introduced HB 1473 to provide for public health tracking.

This story is adapted from one in the September issue of State Legislatures magazine, which is available free to NCSL members and by subscription to others. For much more on environmental tracking, go to the September issue of the magazine, NCSL’s Web site on environmental issues and/or contact Doug Farquhar, NCSL’s expert on environmental issues, at Doug.Farquhar@NCSL.org.