In order to better understand the work-related injuries sustained on central New York dairy farms, we undertook a two-year population-based study of 600 farmers and farm workers on 201 dairy farms. During the observation period, 1984-1986, 151 persons had 200 injuries, giving an injury rate of 16.6%/year (166 injuries/1,000 workers/year). Men were injured more often than women (p less than or equal to 0.01). Injured workers were older (p less than or equal to 0.01), worked more hours (p less than or equal to 0.001), and had heavier workloads than noninjured workers (p less than or equal to 0.001). The growing and harvest seasons had the most injuries; winter the fewest. More than 2/3 of the injuries occurred in the afternoon. Owners/operators, often the most experienced, knowledgeable people on the farms, were most often hurt. Those working more than 60 hours/week, with greater than 30 acres under tillage/worker, had a relative risk of 2.76 compared with all other workers. The attributable risk for this group was 51%. There were two fatalities, both involved owner/operators. Our findings suggest that previous studies may have underestimated the risks faced by farmers. Dairy farming in central New York is very dangerous work. Those who own and operate these dairy farms are most often hurt and killed. Analysis of events on individual farms will be reported separately.

BackgroundWe evaluated the relationship between diagnosed depression and pesticide exposure using information from private pesticide applicators enrolled in the Agricultural Health Study between 1993 and 1997 in Iowa and North Carolina.MethodsThere were 534 cases who self-reported a physician-diagnosed depression and 17,051 controls who reported never having been diagnosed with depression and did not feel depressed more than once a week in the past year. Lifetime pesticide exposure was categorized in three mutually exclusive groups: low (< 226 days, the reference group), intermediate (226–752 days), and high (> 752 days). Two additional measures represented acute high-intensity pesticide exposures: an unusually high pesticide exposure event (HPEE) and physician-diagnosed pesticide poisoning. Logistic regression analyses were performed relating pesticide exposure to depression.ResultsAfter adjusting for state, age, education, marital status, doctor visits, alcohol use, smoking, solvent exposure, not currently having crops or animals, and ever working a job off the farm, pesticide poisoning was more strongly associated with depression [odds ratio (OR) = 2.57; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.74–3.79] than intermediate (OR = 1.07; 95% CI, 0.87–1.31) or high (OR = 1.11; 95% CI, 0.87–1.42) cumulative exposure or an HPEE (OR = 1.65; 95% CI, 1.33–2.05). In analysis of a subgroup without a history of acute poisoning, high cumulative exposure was significantly associated with depression (OR = 1.54; 95% CI, 1.16–2.04).ConclusionThese findings suggest that both acute high-intensity and cumulative pesticide exposure may contribute to depression in pesticide applicators. Our study is unique in reporting that depression is also associated with chronic pesticide exposure in the absence of a physician-diagnosed poisoning.

Objective-This nested case control study evaluated the association between depression and pesticide exposure among women.Methods-The study population included 29,074 female spouses of private pesticide applicators enrolled in the Agricultural Health Study between 1993-1997. Cases were women who had physician diagnosed depression requiring medication. Lifetime pesticide use was categorized as never mixed/ applied pesticides, as low exposure (up to 225 days), high exposure (>225 days) and a history of diagnosed pesticide poisoning. Conclusion-Pesticide poisoning may contribute to risk of depression. Keywordspesticides; depression; Agricultural Health Study; female farm residents Studies over the past forty years show an association between neurological effects and exposure to organophosphate (OP) insecticides 1-3 . In the past decade, several studies have suggested a possible association between pesticide exposure and depressive symptoms, particularly among cases of acute poisoning 4-7 . Depression associated with a pesticide poisoning may persist for years after the poisoning 4,8 . Some studies have shown long-term effects on mood in the absence of an acute pesticide poisoning 6,9-11 , but others have not 12-14 . Thus reported effects of pesticide exposure on depression are inconsistent, and information on effects from low-dose, long-term exposure is especially meager.The association of depression with pesticide exposure has been demonstrated primarily in studies of men, and the few studies of women have suffered from limited power 4,5,11 . Because the epidemiologic characteristics of depression differ in women and men, and because few spouses were men, male spouses were excluded from the analyses. Spouses who were missing responses to the diagnosed depression question, who reported a previous lead or solvent poisoning 24 or head injury 25 , or who were under 18 years of age were also excluded. A total of 29,074 women were available for analysis after these exclusions.Cases were defined as female spouses of private applicators who responded "yes" to the question "Has a DOCTOR ever told you that you had been diagnosed with depression requiring medication". Controls were female spouses who responded "no". For those responding "yes", age of diagnosis was obtained in 20-year categories.Based on associations reported in the literature on depression, and to control for potential confounding, factors chosen for inclusion in the analyses were age at enrollment, state of residence, education, race, Hispanic ethnicity, cigarette smoking and alcohol use. Visits to a physician during the past 12 months was also considered because frequent visits to a physician may increase the probability of being diagnosed with depression (26). Race was dichotomized into white and non-white with whites being the reference group. Education was categorized as whether or not the respondent finished high school, age into four groups (less than 40 years, 40 to 49 years, 50 to 59 years and greater than 59 years, with those under 40 as th...