摘要：Objectives . The goal of this study was to describe acute occupational pesticide-related illnesses among youths and to provide prevention recommendations. Methods . Survey data from 8 states and from poison control center data were analyzed. Illness incidence rates and incidence rate ratios were calculated. Results . A total of 531 youths were identified with acute occupational pesticide-related illnesses. Insecticides were responsible for most of these illnesses (68%), most of which were of minor severity (79%). The average annual incidence rate among youths aged 15 to 17 years was 20.4 per billion hours worked, and the incidence rate ratio among youths vs adults was 1.71 (95% confidence interval = 1.53, 1.91). Conclusions. The present findings suggest the need for greater efforts to prevent acute occupational pesticide-related illnesses among adolescents. Work is a common aspect of youths’ lives. In fact, the vast majority of young people are, at some time, employed while they are in school. Many of the hazards faced by working youths are receiving increasing attention. 1– 3 Although concerns have been raised about pesticide exposures among working youths, 2, 4, 5 few data are available to support these concerns. To address the need for more information about the effects of occupational pesticide exposures among young people, we examined the magnitude, incidence, and nature of acute pesticide-related illnesses among working youths. We also compared the rate of such illnesses among youths with the corresponding rate for adults. In this article, in addition to describing the results of our analyses, we provide recommendations for prevention of these illnesses. To our knowledge, ours is the first study to provide population-based estimates of the occurrence of acute occupational pesticide-related illness among young people.
