Epidemiological studies of pesticide-exposed individuals and their clinical implications

Epidemiological studies were conducted in pesticide-exposed agricultural workers along with an equal number of age- and sex-matched controls. All the 200 exposed volunteers were suffering from fever, nausea, headache and other abnormal symptoms and visited the hospital for general health check-up. These cases were taken up for more detailed studies. Five (2.5%) showed decrease in RBC, haemoglobin, and increase in WBC with a large number of immature cells. These volunteers were further diagnosed as Philadelphia-negative Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) cases based on clinical and pathological examinations. In similar environs, about 100 children (aged between 1 and 17 years) were studied for the above parameters. About 3% of the exposed children showed signs of mental retardation and delayed milestones; these were compared with healthy children (age- and sex-matched) from pristine environment. It is therefore concluded that clinical evaluations supported by occupational epidemiology could determine CML in exposed individuals (adults).