Agricultural Health Study Rolls On
The first 15 years of investigations involving 89,000 individuals in Iowa and North Carolina were completed last year.
Phase III of the government's Agricultural Health Study will be completed this year, with the first 15 years of investigation involving 89,000 individuals in Iowa and North Carolina completed last year and research papers based on the data continuing to be published in numerous health and safety journals. Reported findings from the study about cancer incidence, mortality rates, and Parkinson's disease and other conditions possibly linked to pesticide exposure are available here; the latest updates from the AHS Executive Committee suggested men applying pesticides may be at higher risk for hearing loss.
The study is sponsored by NIH's National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, EPA, and NIOSH and is being conducted by the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa and Battelle Centers for Public Health Research and Evaluation in North Carolina.
Private and commercial pesticide applicators and their spouses are included in the study, which aims to pinpoint the effects of environmental, occupational, dietary, and genetic factors on the health of the agricultural population and those individuals' disease rates. Agricultural workers are generally healthier than the overall U.S. population but have higher rates of some specific cancers, according to published results.
NIH published its latest Federal Register notices March 3 and yesterday to continue the data collection through home visits and telephone interviews.