HEALTH EFFECTS OF PESTICIDES

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Summary of Work: There are two projects I am working on concerning pesticides. One is the Workers Health study, a study of neurologic function among farmworkers chronically exposed to pesticides. In the other I am analyzing data on the reproductive health of women living on farms in the Agricultural health study.For the workers health study, I am taking the lead on analyses on exposure assessment and on the relationship between genetic susceptibility to organophosphate pesticides and neurologic function. Using DNA collected from cheek swabs we will analyze the relationship between two polymorphisms (PON1 and PON2). These paraoxonase polymorphisms are believed to play a role in mediating oxidative stress in heart disease and in detoxifying organophosphate pesticides.For the Agricultural health study, I am analyzing data on the relationship between pesticide and other farm exposures and menstrual cycle abnormalities, fetal loss and preterm births among women living on farms. I am also working on developing methods to improve questionnaire assessment of pesticide exposure by collecting information on occupational pesticide hygiene. This project has been plagued by difficulties with difficulties cleaning the datasets. Because they are so large (over 70,000) questionnaires, we spent the last several years working out data cleaning procedures and trying to get the datasets clean. Within the next few weeks, we should have a clean dataset and will be able to begin the reproductive analyses. The DNA from the workers health study is in the process of being extracted and the polymorphisms are being analyzed. We should have this data in the next few months. - pesticides, farmers, farmworkers, paraoxonase, environmental estrogens, neurologic effects, menstrual cycle, spontaneous abortion, preterm - Human Subjects: Interview, Questionaires, or Surveys Only