Study Explores Impact Of Pesticides Tests On Wenatchee Valley Men Measure Signs That Chemicals Affected Their Health

Back in the old days, Gene McManus used to spray his orchard with arsenate of lead and DDT using a hand-held nozzle. He never wore a mask or other protective equipment.

McManus operated the family pear and apple orchard in Cashmere between 1946 and the 1980s. Before that he worked in the orchard for his father, and today his son Scott runs the orchard that surrounds Gene’s home.

McManus, who is 80 and looks to be in good health, can recall driving a spray rig pulled by a team of horses when he was just a youngster. One time the horses broke into a sudden gallop while the older men walked in back of the rig spraying the trees using long hoses. They were wearing protection that day, spray bonnets to protect them from the lime sulfur pesticide that could burn the body.

“They didn’t know the horses had taken off until the hoses were ripped out of their hands,” said Gene with a chuckle.

The lead arsenate was considered more benign. When the weather got real hot, McManus and his brother Lyle would often hose each other down with the stuff, he said, shaking his head at an act that seems pretty stupid in retrospect. After all, it wasn’t good for the horses.

“I don’t know if it killed any (codling moth) worms, but it was deadly on horses.” The horses would lose their wind after a few years of pulling the spray rigs. They could hardly walk and would have to be put out to pasture or put to death. Orchardists later learned to muzzle the horses to keep them from eating the sprayed orchard grass.

McManus has often wondered if years of spraying lead arsenate, DDT, parathion and all the other pesticides that have come along in the last 50 years have affected his own health. He’s developed diabetes and prostate cancer in recent years. His hands shake a bit, and his memory sure isn’t what it used to be. But that’s all pretty typical stuff for an 80-year-old.

Or is it?

A new research study may help McManus and several hundred others in the valley learn whether orchard sprays - mostly pesticides that are no longer used - have had any impact on their health. They also may learn what risks their children and grandchildren take by exposing themselves to pesticides today.

The study recently began at Central Washington Hospital. It is being done by Oregon Health Sciences University and the University of Washington. It’s the biggest study on pesticide exposure ever done.

McManus is in the first wave of 800 men that will be asked to participate. All of those being recruited for the study took part in a previous research project conducted in the 1970s by the Washington State Department of Health.

Wenatchee was the principal site among 14 regions throughout the nation in which researchers looked for long-term effects of pesticide exposure in men who worked in the fields. More than 1,300 local orchardists, farm workers and others - some were not involved in agriculture - were extensively tested for more than four years.

The project lost its federal funding in 1976 and was discontinued without conclusive results.

“The federal government dropped their commitment,” said Kent Anger, project director for Oregon Health Sciences University, which is funding the new study with a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “We were happy to pick this one up.”

Records from that project were recently rescued from the trash by University of Washington physician Matt Keifer. He coordinated with Oregon Health Sciences University to use the old records as a baseline for new tests using sophisticated equipment that was not available 20 years ago.

Out of the original 1,300 Wenatchee-area participants, 350 have since died. About 800 are still living in the area. So far, 40 have responded to the first wave of letters and calls to 100 of the participants. The study will continue for the next three months or until all 800 have been contacted.

Participants in the new study are paid $50. The one-time tests take about three hours.

The new tests focus on the known effects of pesticides, said Anger. Other tests have shown that people exposed to high doses of organophosphate compounds test lower on neurological assessments. The new tests will look for signs of neuro-degenerative effects of those compounds as well as organochloride products used earlier and carbamates, which like many organophosphates, are still in use.

Researchers will ask participants questions about their medical and occupational history and have them perform several behavioral and neurological tests using computerized equipment.

Researchers will contact individuals immediately if a serious problem is found. They plan to come back next year and notify the entire group of their general findings at a public meeting.