Pesticide Used on Orange Trees in California Tied to Outbreak of Skin Disorders

A pesticide used on orange groves was responsible for skin disorders that struck 114 fruit pickers earlier this year in California’s largest pesticide-caused dermatitis outbreak, the national Centers for Disease Control reported this week.

The outbreak occurred in May among pickers employed by a packer in Tulare County in the San Joaquin Valley. Fifty-eight percent of the 198 pickers reported assorted illnesses, including burning, itching and redness in the neck and chest.

A pesticide called OMITE-CR was implicated; it was made with propargite, a substance which, next to sulfur, is the most frequently reported cause of pesticide-related dermatitis in California agricultural workers, the Atlanta-based health agencys aid in its weekly report.