Pesticide Exposure and Depression among Male Private Pesticide Applicators in the Agricultural Health Study

Abstract

Background: Pesticide exposure may be positively associated with depression. Few previous studies have considered the episodic nature of depression or examined individual pesticides.Objective: We evaluated associations between pesticide exposure and depression among male private pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study.Methods: We analyzed data for 10 pesticide classes and 50 specific pesticides used by 21,208 applicators enrolled in 1993–1997 who completed a follow-up telephone interview in 2005–2010. We divided applicators who reported a physician diagnosis of depression (n = 1,702; 8%) into those who reported a previous diagnosis of depression at enrollment but not follow-up (n = 474; 28%), at both enrollment and follow-up (n = 540; 32%), and at follow-up but not enrollment (n = 688; 40%) and used polytomous logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs. We used inverse probability weighting to adjust for potential confounders and to account for the exclusion of 3,315 applicators with missing covariate data and 24,619 who did not complete the follow-up interview.Results: After weighting for potential confounders, missing covariate data, and dropout, ever-use of two pesticide classes, fumigants and organochlorine insecticides, and seven individual pesticides—the fumigants aluminum phosphide and ethylene dibromide; the phenoxy herbicide (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy)acetic acid (2,4,5-T); the organochlorine insecticide dieldrin; and the organophosphate insecticides diazinon, malathion, and parathion—were all positively associated with depression in each case group, with ORs between 1.1 and 1.9.Conclusions: Our study supports a positive association between pesticide exposure and depression, including associations with several specific pesticides.Citation: Beard JD, Umbach DM, Hoppin JA, Richards M, Alavanja MCR, Blair A, Sandler DP, Kamel F. 2014. Pesticide exposure and depression among male private pesticide applicators in the Agricultural Health Study. Environ Health Perspect 122:984–991; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1307450

Anxiety and depression following cumulative low-level exposure to organophosphate pesticides

“…While the results we obtained from self-reported measures support the findings of and Beard et al (2014), the findings we obtained using diagnostic interviewing was less supportive. There are a number of potential reasons for the discrepancies between our findings and those previously reported.…”

“…For example, evaluated the relationship between depression and pesticide exposure in 17,585 pesticide applicators enrolled in the AHS and found both acute high intensity and lower level exposures (in the absence of a history of acute poisoning) were associated with depression. More recently, Beard et al (2014) evaluated associations between mood disorder diagnosis and exposure to ten different classes of pesticides and fifty specific pesticides in 21,208 pesticide applicators, also in the AHS. They found that depression was associated with several specific pesticides, including OPs, even after controlling for other risk factors.…”

“…Methods that have been used to assess the presence of mood disorder in OP exposed populations range from simply asking participants whether or not they have ever been diagnosed with depression/anxiety by a physician (e.g. Beard et al, 2014) to asking participants to complete standardised symptom questionnaires with differing degrees of sensitivity and specificity (e.g. Ames et al, 1995;Farahat et al, 2003;Jamal et al, 2002;Mackenzie Ross et al, 2007;Roldan-Tapia et al, 2006;Stallones and Beseler, 2002a;Steenland et al, 2000;Stephens et al, 1995).…”

Genetic Engineering and Sustainable Crop Disease Management: Opportunities for Case-by-Case Decision-Making

“…Pesticide use raises significant concerns over impacts on health [2][3][4][5][6][7] and the environment [8][9][10][11][12]. Furthermore, we cannot address the challenges to sustainability posed by synthetic pesticides by simply switching to the application of natural pesticides, because the same concerns apply to them [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”

Regenerative agriculture: merging farming and natural resource conservation profitably

“…This simplificmtion of our food system contributes to climmte chmnge (Cmrlsson-Kmnymmm mnd Gonzmlez, 2009), rising pollution (Bemmn et ml., 2011;Morrissey et ml., 2015), biodiversity loss (Butler et ml., 2007;Lmndis et ml., 2008), mnd dmmmging lmnd use chmnges (Johnston, 2014;Wright mnd Wimberly, 2013) thmt mffect the sustminmbility, profitmbility mnd resilience of fmrms (Schipmnski et ml., 2016). Fmrmers experience the highest suicide rmte of mny profession in the United Stmtes, m rmte nemrly five-fold higher thmn the generml public (McIntosh et ml., 2016); the driving depression rmtes mre relmted to conventionml production prmctices (Bemrd et ml., 2014). Yet the scmle of our food production system provides opportunities for solving some of these plmnetmry scmle problems (Lml, 2004;Temgue et ml., 2016), but requires m systems-level shift in the vmlues mnd gomls of our food production system thmt de-prioritizes solely genermting high yields towmrd one thmt produces higher qumlity food while conserving our nmturml resource bmse.…”