BILL ANALYSIS
AB 1963
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Date of Hearing: April 6, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
AB 1963 (Nava) - As Introduced: February 17, 2010
SUBJECT : Pesticide Poisoning.
SUMMARY : Requires laboratories (labs) that perform
cholinesterase (ChE) testing for the purpose of determining
workers' pesticide exposure to electronically report specified
test results to the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR).
Specifically, this bill :
1)Finds that pesticide regulation should be the joint
responsibility of the DPR and the Office of the Environmental
Health Hazards Assessment (OEHHA).
2)Requires labs that perform ChE testing to report to the DPR
the test results for every person tested.
3)Requires the medical supervisor ordering the ChE testing to
provide a copy of the ChE test results or any recommendations
to the tested individual within 14 days of receiving the
information.
4)Specifies that all information reported under this bill will
be confidential, except that OEHHA, DPR, and the Department of
Public Health (DPH) may share the information only for the
purpose of surveillance, case management, investigation,
environmental assessment, environmental remediation, or
abatement with the appropriate county agricultural
commissioner or local health officer.
5)Requires DPR to do all of the following:
a) Transmit the reported information to OEHHA and to the
DPH; and
b) Share information reported in an electronic format, as
needed, with the appropriate county agricultural
commissioner and conduct follow-up investigations on an as
needed basis; and
c) Prepare a report on the ChE testing program by December
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31, 2013, in consultation with OEHHA and DPH, and specify
issues the report may examine, including but not limited to
evaluating and assessing the program's effectiveness and
making recommendations to the Legislature.
6)Authorizes OEHHA to review the test results, in consultation
with DPR and DPH, to provide a medical or toxicological
consultation to the medical supervisor of the person tested
and the Local Health Officer (LHO).
7)Authorizes DPH to assess a fine of up to $200 per person
against any lab that knowingly fails to meet the reporting
requirements of this bill.
EXISTING LAW :
1) Requires any physician who knows or has reasonable cause
to believe that a patient is suffering from pesticide
poisoning or any disease or condition caused by a pesticide
to promptly report that fact to the LHO by telephone within
24 hours, and in writing within seven days (Health and
Safety Code (HSC) 105200).
2) Requires LHOs receiving the reports above to immediately
notify the county agricultural commissioner and, at the
LHO's discretion, to immediately notify the director of
OEHHA of each report received. Requires LHOs to report to
the director of DPR, the director of OEHHA, and the director
of Industrial Relations each case reported to him or her
within seven days after receipt of the report. (HSC 105200).
3) Requires employers who have employees regularly handling
or exposed to organophosphate and carbamate pesticides to
have a written agreement with a physician to provide medical
supervision of those employees, and specifies employer
responsibilities for medical supervision, including testing
at certain intervals, investigating work practices when
employee ChE levels fall below 80% of baseline and removing
employees from the exposure if levels fall to 60% or less of
baseline, as specified.(Title 3, Section 6728, California
Code of Regulations ).
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS:
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Need for the bill . According to the author, this bill is
necessary to allow state agencies to effectively monitor the
existing ChE medical monitoring program and to better protect
California farm workers who are routinely exposed to dangerous
levels of the pesticides that affect ChE levels. The author
points out that submission of the reports contemplated in this
bill are made much easier in light of electronic reporting
capabilities than they would have been when the ChE monitoring
program was first established. The Cholinesterase Medical
Supervision Program does not include any requirement for test
results to be delivered to any state agency responsible for
worker health; thus nearly three decades after this program was
enacted, it is impossible to judge its effectiveness.
Background on cholinesterase testing. According to the
OHHEA<1>, California regulations require employers to arrange
with a licensed physician for medical supervision of
agricultural workers who apply Toxicity Categories I and II
organophosphate and carbamate pesticides. Medical supervision
is a surveillance program that monitors applicators of such
pesticides. It consists of periodic measurements of
cholinesterase activity levels in applicators that are compared
to measurements of baseline cholinesterase activity levels,
which were established prior to exposure to
cholinesterase-inhibiting organophosphate and carbamate
pesticides.
Plasma and red blood cell (RBC) cholinesterase tests are the
only practical means available for measuring the effects of
exposure to pesticides that contain organophosphates and
carbamates.
Excessive exposure to these compounds can inhibit cholinesterase
activity levels sufficiently to induce serious illness.
Establishing an individual's baseline value for both plasma and
RBC cholinesterase activity is essential for medical
supervision. The employer is required to follow the
recommendations of the medical supervisor concerning matters of
occupational health. Under the regulations, the employer is
responsible for removing employees from exposure upon
---------------------------
<1> OHHEA, Guidelines For Physicians Who Supervise Workers
Exposed To Cholinesterase-Inhibiting Pesticides , 2002.
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recommendation of the medical supervisor.
Pesticide poisoning reporting. California has two systems for
worker and consumer pestidice reporting and investigations. One
program requires the reporting of all known or suspected cases
of pesticide poisoning to the local health officer, who in turn
reports it to State and local agriculture and worker safety
agencies. In addition to this emergency reporting, workers who
are regularly using organophosphates and carbamates pesticides
are required to be under medical supervision that includes
regular blood test to determine whether the organophosphates and
carbamates are effecting the of ChE levels. Under current
worker's medical supervision and reporting requirements, if a
worker is removed from work because his/her ChE activity levels
are depressed but the worker is asymptomatic, then these test
results are not reported as a suspected pesticide poisonings.
Prior related legislation.
AB 1530 (Lieber) 2007. This bill addressed the similar program
for ChE report to state Health and Pesticide regulatory
agencies. The bill was held in the Senate Appropriations
Committee.
Double Referral to Health Committee . Should this measure be
approved by this committee, the do pass motion must include the
action to re-refer the bill to the Assembly Committee on Health.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Pesticide Action Network of North America (Cosponsor)
Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles (Cosponsor)
Health Officers Association of California (Cosponsor)
ACT for Women and Girls
American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
(California)
California Labor Federation
California Nurses Association
California Public Health Association - North
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Californians for Alternatives to Toxics
Californians for Justice Collaborative
Clean Water Action
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Commonweal
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
Environmental Center of San Luis Obispo County
Fresno Coalition Again the Misuse of Pesticides
Healthy Child Healthy World
Natural Resources Defense Council
Lideres Campesinas
Nevada County Citizens for Choice
Pesticide Action Network
Pesticide Watch
Physicians for Social Responsibility - San Francisco Bay Chapter
Sierra Club California
Urban Habitat
Opposition
None Received
Analysis Prepared by : Robert Fredenburg/ E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965