Chronic Agricultural Chemical Exposure Among Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers

Laboratory studies and case reports of accidental exposure to large amounts of chemicals indicate that there are immediate and long-term negative health consequences of exposure to agricultural chemicals. Logically, the consequences of chronic low-level exposure also should, be negative. Establishing a connection, however, between the more usual (chronic, low-level) exposure experienced by farmworkers and health outcomes using epidemiological methods has been difficult. In this article we examine the reasons why this has been difficult, using specific examples from our ongoing research in rural North Carolina. We argue that because of the diverse nature of farming systems in the United States and the social organization of farm work, the combination of social-science methods for establishing the patterns of exposure and for devising appropriate measures with epidemiological methods for linking exposure to outcomes may provide the best methodological approach for studying this problem.