Developing a comprehensive pesticide health effects tracking system for an urban setting: New York City's approach.
In recent years, there have been substantial investments and improvements in federal and state surveillance systems to track the health effects from pesticide exposure. These surveillance systems help to identify risk factors for occupational exposure to pesticides, patterns in poisonings, clusters of disease, and populations at risk of exposure from pesticide use. Data from pesticide use registries and recent epidemiologic evidence pointing to health risks from urban residential pesticide use make a strong case for understanding better the sale, application, and use of pesticides in cities. In this article, we describe plans for the development of a pesticide tracking system for New York City that will help to elucidate where and why pesticides are used, potential risks to varied populations, and the health consequences of their use. The results of an inventory of data sources are presented along with a description of their relevance to pesticide tracking. We also discuss practical, logistical, and methodologic difficulties of linking multiple secondary data sources with different levels of person, place, and time descriptors.
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Environmental Disease Prevention, 253 Broadway, New York, NY 10007, USA. dkass@health.nyc.gov
Daniel E
DE
Kass
Audrey L
AL
Thier
Jessica
J
Leighton
James E
JE
Cone
Nancy L
NL
Jeffery
D003625:Data Collection; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D006801:Humans; D009519:New York City; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D010571:Pest Control; D010575:Pesticides / Q000506:poisoning*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D016730:Program Development; D011634:Public Health; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014505:Urban Population
D010575:Pesticides