NIEHS Initiatives

0^ Agricultural Chemicals Although agricultural chemicals improve crop yields, increase the quality of the American diet, and contribute to improvements in public health, there is growing public concern about their human health effects. Agricultural chemicals are usually mixtures of chemicals, some of which can damage the environment and accumulate in ecosystems. Depending on dose, some agricultural Q chemicals can cause a range of adverse effects on human health including cancer, acute and chronic injury to the nervous system, lung damage, reproductive dysfunction, and possibly dysfunction of the endocrine and immune systems. There are many gaps in information about the mechanisms of toxic action, human exposures, and the nature and extent of human health effects of agricultural chemicals. Very few older pesticides, in particular, have been tested for human health effects. NIEHS has long supported activities on the impact of agricultural chemicals on human health. From this experience and several > recent conferences, NIEHS has identified some new initiatives and additions to current efforts that could significantly improve our knowledge about adverse health effects of agricultural chemicals, especially in susceptible populations. To establish valid and accurate risk assessments, sound information on how agricultural chemicals are involved in toxicity and their mechanisms ofaction must be generated. This information must indude data on exposure assessment, tumor promotion, chronic and acute neuro-toxicity, immunotoxicity, and reproductive and developmental toxicity. New research and development efforts ofNIEHS will concentrate on: * Epidemiology studies of chronic or low-level exposures to agricultural chemicals, especially in the susceptible populations of * _ women, children, the elderly, and migrant workers. * Epidemiology studies ofdelayed neuro-and immunotoxicity ofagricultural chemicals in susceptible populations. * Identification of more biochemically and pathophysiologically specific biomarkers ofexposure and effects of agricultural chemicals (e.g., use ofnew cellular biochemistry to find biomarkers of effects on cell function). * Studies of both cancer and noncancer endpoints of agricultural chemical exposures including tumor promotion, chronic and acute neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and reproductive and developmental toxicity. r_ * Studies investigating the mechanisms of action of these chemicals as a way to better understand the effects ofagricultural chemicals in previously exposed individuals and as a means to develop prevention and/or intervention strategies. * Development ofmethods to study ecological effects ofagricultural chemicals as an indicator ofpotential human health hazards. A number of animal and clinical trials have demonstrated the relative sensitivity of pregnant women and their fetuses to the neurotoxic and reproductive and developmental toxicity …