Alert and sentinel systems: SENSOR-Pesticides Program, USA

Part of a series of five in-depth studies of Alert and Sentinel Systems for detecting, monitoring and preventing new work-related diseases (WRDs), this article focuses on the SENSOR-Pesticides programme in the United States.

The programme aims to identify emerging acute pesticide-related health problems and provides surveillance after pesticides have been put on the market.

Gathering information from the State Department for Agriculture, poison control centres and the workers’ compensation system, SENSOR-Pesticides has developed a simple but thorough procedure for collecting data using standardised variables, assessing the reported cases and determining the case severity, the alert level and follow-up actions.