Survey of health and pesticide exposure (SHAPE): introduction

1) Who is organising this study?

This study is being organised by three academic research teams, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the West London Regional Neurosciences Centre at Imperial College (WLRNC) and the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) in Edinburgh. Tony Fletcher from the LSHTM is the overall co-ordinator of the study. The ethics committee at the LSHTM has approved the study.

2) Who else is involved in the study?

The research team is working closely with organisations supporting individuals who have been exposed to organophosphates and other chemicals. These organisations are OPIN, PEX and NIOPSA. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) is funding the study. An Advisory Group has been set up with representatives from all the parties involved-this will provide the scrutiny to ensure careful conduct of the study.

3) Aims of the study

There are many individuals who have reported long term and in many cases disabling sickness, following OP exposures, most notably in sheep dipping activities. Many of these individuals have contacted the above organisations and there appear to be about 1000 in total. If any or all of these are sick as a direct result of OP exposure, then this is clearly unacceptable. Yet whether or not OP exposures, especially at lower exposure levels have been making people sick is still a controversial question. One way of shedding light on this question may be to assess the degree of similarity in patterns of ill health and exposure among these 1000 people. Although many of these individuals have been medically examined or interviewed by various specialists, there is as yet no systematic picture available of the total pattern of exposures and ill health for this large group. This project plans to provide such a picture.

Part 2 of the study will involve clinical examinations for a small number of participants from Part 1 of the study. The interview phase of this study will allow us to group individuals according to the symptoms they report; we will randomly select individuals from these groups to attend the Part 2 study.