King and Yakima Counties each reported the highest number of cases. Yakima had 73 incidents involving 112 individuals, and King County had 40 incidents involving 45 individuals. As in prior years, insecticides were most often involved with illness. Combinations versus single use pesticides were more frequently implicated. The information in Table 1 summarizes 237 DOH cases classified definitely, probably, or possibly related to pesticide exposure.
Classification is based on documentation of exposure, medical record review, and case investigation.
Fifty-three percent of those occurred in the fruit production industry, which is highly labor intensive and requires significant pesticide usage. DOH will continue monitoring illness associated with pesticide exposure to determine current trends and to develop necessary intervention strategies. In addition, DOH and PIRT will identify additional stakeholders that will benefit from the information contained in the PIRT Annual Report .