II. ACTION REQUESTED 

This review is intended to fulfill our requirement to docket summaries of incident data that were 

reported to the Agency, as well as to ensure human incident data, and the Agricultural Health 

Study are part of the problem formulation phase of registration review. Reports of adverse health 

effects allegedly due to a specific pesticide exposure (i.e., an “incident”) are largely self-reported 

and therefore, generally speaking, neither exposure to a pesticide or reported symptom (or the 

connection between the two) is validated. Typically, causation cannot be determined based on 

incident data. However, incident information can be an important feedback loop to the Agency – 

incidents of severe outcome, or a suggested pattern or trend among less severe incidents can 

signal the Agency to further investigate a particular chemical or product. Observational 

epidemiology studies relate the risk of disease, e.g., cancer, and exposure to an agent such as a 

pesticide product in the general population or specific sub-groups like pesticide applicators. 

III. BACKGROUND 

For this evaluation, both the OPP Incident Data System (IDS) and the Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (CDC/NIOSH) 

Sentinel Event Notification System for Occupational Risk-Pesticides (SENSOR) database were 

consulted for pesticide incident data on the active ingredient methomyl. Additionally, the 

Agency is looking to include findings from the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), beginning with 

the problem formulation phase of registration review. The purpose of the database searches is to 

identify potential patterns on the extent and severity of the health effects attributed to methomyl 

exposure. The IDS includes reports of alleged human health incidents from various sources, 

including mandatory Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Section 6 (a) 

(2) reports from registrants, other federal and state health and environmental agencies and 

individual consumers. Since 1992, OPP compiles these reports in IDS. IDS contains reports 

from across the U.S. and most incidents have all relevant product information recorded. Reports 

submitted to the IDS represent anecdotal reports or allegations only, unless otherwise stated in 

the report. The NIOSH SENSOR database covers 12 states from 1998-2006, although reporting 

varies from state to state (the database includes a total of 10,659 cases). Pesticide-related 

incidents are collected from Department of Labor workers’ compensation claims when reported 

by physicians, reports from State Departments of Agriculture, from poison control centers and 

from State Departments of Health based on reports by physicians suspecting pesticide exposure. 

Although both occupational and non-occupational incidents are included in the database, 

SENSOR focuses on occupational pesticide incidents, and is of particular value in providing that 

information. A state SENSOR contact specialist does follow-up with workers and obtains 

medical records to verify symptoms, circumstances surrounding the exposure, severity, and 

outcome. Using standardized protocol and case definitions, derived from poison center 

reporting, SENSOR coordinators at State Departments of Health enter the incident interview 

description provided by the worker, medical report, physician and patient into the SENSOR data 

system, accessible to participating states and EPA. The AHS is a high quality, prospective 

epidemiology study evaluating the link between pesticide use and various health outcomes 

including cancer. The AHS includes private and commercial pesticide applicators and their 

spouses. If there are AHS findings relevant to a particular pesticide going through registration 

review, the Agency will ensure they are considered in the problem formulation/scoping phase of 
the process and, if appropriate, fully reviewed in the risk assessment phase of the process. The 

AHS includes information on the use of 50 different pesticide active ingredients commonly used 

in agriculture. 

IV. RESULTS/DISCUSSION 

For IDS we identified 43 cases reported for methomyl in the United States from 2002 to the 

present. Of these cases, thirteen were reviewed because in these cases methomyl was used as a 

single chemical only and therefore these cases provide more certain information about the 

potential effects of methomyl exposure. Five of the incidents involved intentional 

ingestion/misuse of the product (two of which involved more than one person; and one of which 

resulted in a fatality, and the rest resulting in major or moderate severe symptoms). Six incidents 

involved agricultural handlers using methomyl: four in seemingly typical ways and two where 

equipment malfunctioned/leaked (all of these resulted in moderately severe symptoms). The 

symptoms most often reported was neurological (27%) followed by gastrointestinal (23%) and 

ocular (20%). Proportions relate to the total number of symptoms, not the total number of cases, 

i.e., an individual may report multiple symptoms to the database. See the table below for further 

details. 

For NIOSH SENSOR from 1998 to 2006, there are 60 cases reported for methomyl in the 

database. Of these cases, 21 were reviewed because, in these cases, methomyl was used as a 

single chemical only and had a certainty classification of definite, probable, or possible, as these 

cases provide more certain information about the potential effects of methomyl exposure. All of 

the reviewed cases were classified as low or moderate severity. The health effects reported 

include: neurological (81%), gastrointestinal (71%), ocular (24%), respiratory (19%), 

cardiovascular (19%), dermal (14%), and genitourinary (5%). Proportions relate to the total 

number of symptoms, not the total number of cases, i.e., an individual may report multiple 

symptoms to the database. Ten cases were exposed in an occupational handler setting, including 

mixing, loading and applying methomyl. The health effects most often reported for these cases 

include: neurological (80%) and gastrointestinal (80%). One case of occupational postapplication 

exposure involved a 62 year old male who entered a field that had been treated the previous 

night. He experienced dermal and neurological symptoms. Two of these cases were bystander 

exposure to methomyl. Both cases experienced respiratory, neurological and gastrointestinal 

symptoms. One case experienced dermal symptoms in addition to the ones previously stated. In 

eight cases the details are unknown. 

 

Methomyl is not included in the AHS, and therefore not considered in this report. 

Although there were not many cases, some of the cases involved moderate and severe effects. 

Subsequently, human incident data may warrant further analysis for the risk assessment and/or 

risk management of methomyl. The Agency will continue to monitor the incident information 

and if a concern is triggered, additional analysis will be included in the risk assessment. 
IDS Report 

Chemical: Methomyl Human Incidents 

Incident Number 

Incident 

Date Product Name 

Registration 

Number City State 

Exposure 

Type* In

013050 001 04-Jun-02 LANNATE 

(UNSPECIFIED) 

MARTINEZ CA HC Adult (18-64 years 

product while spradeveloped nauseatremors. He was treatment. 

013199 001 10-Jul-02 DUPONT LANNATE 

LV INSECTICIDE 

00035200384 GREENVILLE NC HC Adult (18-64 years 

amount of producdisconnected from he developed sweagitation, pupils-mweakness and drofrom the hospital. blood cholinesteranormal anion gapnot intubated. 

013213 001 24-Jul-02 DUPONT LANNATE 

SP INSECTICIDE 

00035200342 TURLOCK CA HC Adult (18-64 years 

the product when duster. He becamseveral times, had jaundiced lookinghospital until 1 am 

014081 001 08-May-03 DUPONT LANNATE 

LV INSECTICIDE 

00035200384 ATHENS TX HC Adult (18-64 years 

diluted product whProduct got on his legs; within ten mdeveloped rash, h
014301 001 07-Jul-03 DUPONT LANNATE 

LV INSECTICIDE 

00035200384 MILBER KY HC A 67-year old mal

the product for 12 the evening of secand excessive swsuffered from nautremors, constrictebreathing and chehospital for treatm

015248 001 05-Jun-04 DUPONT LANNATE 

LV INSECTICIDE 

00035200384 ALICE TX HC A 25-year old mal

when he returned remained pinpointother symptoms. 

017946 001 06-Oct-06 METHOMYLUNSPECIFIED ENDUSE PRODUCT KIRKLAND WA HA A 55-year old mal

became blind for 4mixed with Jagermstroke (in the opticher vision. 

018139 001 23-Nov-06 LANNATE 

UNSPECIFIED END USE PRODUCT 

OCEANSIDE CA HB Adult (18-64 years 

possibly bought in respiratory arrest; became stable bu

020858 001 01-Aug-06 DUPONT LANNATE 

LV INSECTICIDE/NEMATICIDE 

00035200384 SAVANNAH NY HB Adult (18-64) yea

product when he wfuel near the locatwas loading the prespiratory symptoaerial applicator. 

020891 011 20-May-09 METONATE 90 PS 

(MEXICAN PRODUCT: METONATE C WAS WRONG) 

CHINO CA HB A 17-year old fem

teaspoonful of proand was admitted 
021072 001 22-Jul-09 DUPONT LANNATE 

UNSPECIFIED ENDUSE PRODUCT 

THOMASVILLE GA HC A 50-year old mal

through the fields three episodes of driving, passed ouepisode of syncopwent down to 30's

021160 001 01-Aug-09 GOLDEN MALRIN 

FLY BAIT-NON DUPONT PRODUCT 

TOLEDO OH HB A 69-year old fem

tablespoon of prosigns and symptobecame stable, al

021334 001 01-Aug-09 METHOMYL LENEXA KS HE Restaurant worke

people by mixing Customers develoweakness, sweati

* Severity Categories H Human H-A Human Fatality H-B Human Major H-C Human Moderate H-D Human Minor H-E Human Unspecified