GOALS

The goals of this educational activity are to:

• Increase the knowledge of health care providers, especially pediatricians, about the special susceptibilities of children to pesticides, particularly organophosphate pesticides
• Increase competency to recognize and respond to childhood related illness.

OBJECTIVES

After completing this educational activity, the reader should be able to:

• Identify the routes and patterns of exposure that place children at risk for higher dose exposure to pesticides.
• Discern the importance of taking an environmental exposure history for timely diagnosis of childhood illness due to pesticides.
• Recognize the signs and symptoms of acute organophosphate poisoning in children, with attention to how presentation may differ from that seen in adults.
• Describe the public health importance of sentinel event reporting of pesticide-related illnesses, and know how to report such events.
• Understand the current evidence for long-term sequelae of acute and chronic organophosphate exposures during childhood.
• Provide anticipatory guidance that enables patients to limit childhood pesticide exposures.

ACCREDITATION

The University of Washington School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The University of Washington School of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

This curriculum was developed by the Pacific Northwest Agricultural Safety and Health (PNASH) Center and the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) in Seattle, Washington.