SENSOR-Pesticides
Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks (SENSOR)-Pesticides is a U.S. state-based surveillance program that monitors pesticide-related illness and injury.
"[16] Jay Vroom, president of CropLife America, said in a press release that "...our industry has a moral and ethical obligation...to know how these products impact humans.
"[17] Surveillance of pesticide-related injuries and illnesses is recommended by the American Medical Association,[18] the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE),[19] the Pew Environmental Health Commission,[20] and the Government Accountability Office.
[21][22][23] Beginning in 1987, NIOSH supported the implementation of the Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risks (SENSOR) program in ten state health departments.
The objectives of the program were to help state health departments develop and refine reporting systems for certain occupational disorders so that they could conduct and evaluate interventions and prevention efforts.
[25] Federal and state-level scientists and researchers with SENSOR-Pesticides have published articles on pesticide exposure events and trends using program data.
In response to a Mediterranean fruit fly (also known as “Medfly”) outbreak, officials from the Florida Department of Agriculture sprayed pesticides (primarily malathion) and bait over five counties during the spring and summer of 1998.
[30] Scientists from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences stated that malathion was being sprayed in a manner that did not pose a significant risk to public health.
[30] Officials from the Florida Department of Health and the SENSOR-Pesticides program published an article in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) that described these case reports and recommended alternative methods for Medfly control, including exclusion activities at ports of entry to prevent importation, more rapid detection through increased sentinel trapping densities, and the release of sterile male flies to interrupt the reproductive cycle.
[30] The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) incorporated these suggestions into their 2001 Environmental Impact Statement on the Fruit Fly Cooperative Control Program.
Researchers from the SENSOR-Pesticides program published an article in 2005 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on pesticide poisoning in schools.
[38] RISE president Allen James faulted the article for relying on unverified reports and said that evidence suggested that such incidents were extremely rare.
[38] The increased awareness of pesticide use in schools influenced parents and other stakeholders in numerous states to call for the adoption of integrated pest management programs.
However, when they presented their findings at the annual SENSOR-Pesticides workshop in 2006, they realized that all three mothers worked for the same tomato grower during the period of organogenesis while pregnant, and that they may have been exposed to pesticides.
[45] SENSOR-Pesticides federal and state staff, along with officials from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR), published an article in the CDC MMWR that called attention to injuries and illnesses resulting from use of total release foggers.
[47] DEC Commissioner Pete Granis announced that the department would move to classify foggers as a restricted-use product in New York State, meaning that only certified pesticide applicators would be able to obtain them.
