Challenges of pesticide exposure assessment in occupational studies of chronic diseases

Challenges of pesticide exposure assessment in occupational studies of chronic diseases:

In this issue of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Ohlander and colleagues review methods used to assess pesticide exposure in occupational epidemiology studies over the last 25 years .1 Their findings are striking for two reasons. The first is the very large number of studies published during this time period. Pesticides have been linked to almost every category of chronic disease, including cancer, respiratory, neurological and autoimmune diseases, as well as reproductive outcomes. The authors identified 1271 articles, averaging over 50 publications per year. Second, as the authors note, the methods used to assign pesticide exposure are relatively crude in many instances, limiting the aetiological inferences that can be made from these data.

Pesticide exposure is ubiquitous not only in occupational settings but also in the environment. Worldwide, in 2012, the last year for which data are available, almost six billion pounds of pesticide active ingredients were applied.2 These...