Written by Sarah Lim, CA Lic# 0M52397

Free Online CME Credit from California Environmental Protection Agency 

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) of the California Environmental Protection Agency has announced two of its courses that offer continuing medical education credits.  These courses are recently revised free online one-hour courses.

Since the 1970’s, California physicians have been legally required to report pesticide illnesses to local county health officials and state authorities.  More than 200 million pounds of active ingredients in agricultural pesticides is spread all over California every year resulting in pesticide illnesses.  For example, in 2015, 1,757 cases of pesticide illnesses were reported.  Prompt and accurate reporting helps regulators manage state pesticide laws and identify what actions need to be taken to protect workers and the public from possible future cases. 

The courses offered are:

1)    “Recognition, Management, and Reporting of Pesticide Illness”

·      This course covers how to diagnose and treat pesticide illnesses as well as California’s legal requirement to report pesticide illnesses.

2)     “The California Medical Supervision Program”

·      This course is for physicians who would like to become medical supervisors in the California Medical Supervision Program – a cholinesterase-monitoring surveillance program created to protect pesticide workers who handle toxic cholinesterase-inhibiting pesticides.

These courses are available at http://mededpesticide.org/.